André Charigny (1902-2000) Wild Ducks. Hunting, Besançon Franc Comtois Fernier

Large and superb oil on canvas by André Charigny titled on the back on a label by the painter "Les canards sauvages" signed lower right in red. Size of the canvas alone 61x50cm and 77x65cm including frame. This is a very beautiful post-impressionist composition by André Charigny who paints here a still life with wild ducks in situation; as usual the realization is of great mastery, perfect drawing and most subtle coloring. But what could be more logical because Charigny is today one of the best Franche-Comté painters of his generation alongside Fernier, Roz, Bourgeois, Chapatte, Fanart etc.... André Auguste Charigny is a French painter, born on October 27, 1902 in Paris and died in Besançon on January 26, 2000. From school, the young André, son of color merchants, was passionate about drawing. Living in the 17th arrondissement on Rue Balagny and Rue Guy-Môquet since 1945, he cultivated this talent at the Bernard Palissy Municipal School of Applied Arts for Boys, taught by Alexandre Lavalley (1862-1927), winner of the 1891 Prix de Rome for painting. In June 1916, he won first prize in visual drawing in the general drawing competitions of the Paris city schools. From 1916 onward, for health reasons, the teenager spent several years in Normandy, in the Eure department, where he discovered the wonder of nature. In 1920, he was admitted to the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. Charigny set up his studio at 144 Avenue Émile-Zola, in the 15th arrondissement, and remained at the school on Rue Malaquais for five years. In 1924, his elder, the painter Robert Fernier (1895-1977), founder of the Courbet Museum in Ornans, invited him and introduced him to his Jura, the one painted by their predecessor Gustave Courbet. In Pontarlier, where he exhibited that same year, Charigny met the adopted Franche-Comté painter André Roz (1887-1946), with whom he would participate in the founding of the Salon des Annonciades in Pontarlier in 1927, a salon to which he would remain loyal throughout his life. Charigny also exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he received an honorable mention in 1927 and a bronze medal the following year, winning the Leclerc-Maria-Bouland Prize in 1928, the silver medal in 1930, and the gold medal in 1931. He also received the Rosa Bonheur Prize. In 1932, he was awarded the Eugène Thirion Prize. At the 1934 Salon, three travel grants were awarded to three painters: Lucien Fontanarosa, Paul Girol, and Charigny for a Market Scene. At the 1940 Salon, Charigny won the Paul Chabas Prize. In 1947, he became a member of the jury for this national Salon, a year after his admirer Pierre Jouffroy, a painter then based in Montbéliard.In 1945, he married Antoinette Maître, and four years later, the couple settled permanently on Rue Mégevand in Besançon.Every summer, his faithful friend Pierre Bichet (1922-2008), a snow painter and cameraman for volcanologist Haroun Tazieff, invited him to share his Jura studio on Route des Granges in Pontarlier. In 1945, while studying at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, Bichet had moved into Charigny's former Parisian studio. After his wife's death in 1977, André Charigny remained faithful to his Besançon home. In July-August 1982, the Salon des Annonciades held a major retrospective of Charigny's works to mark his 80th birthday. From June to October 1989,the young Musée de Pontarlier, founded in 1982, exhibited Charigny, who was part of the permanent collections alongside Courbet, Fernier, Roz, and Bichet. The artist, who successfully painted scenes from life, landscapes, and still lifes, died in 2000 at the age of 98.From September 28 to November 17, 2002,on the occasion of the centenary of the painter's birth, a vast retrospective was held at the Chapelle des Annonciades in Pontarlier. In August-September 2010, the Château de Belvoir presented a retrospective of André Charigny's work entitled Exquisite Sketches. This painting is in its original, very good condition, delivered in an old frame, probably its period frame. Work guaranteed authentic.