Chantron Alexandre-jacques / Young Breton Harvester.

Important and interesting oil on canvas dated 1908. This painting was presented at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1908. This Breton painter, for this painting represented a subject from his region, a young Breton harvester. Born January 28, 1842 in NANTES, Alexandre-Jacques Chantron studied with François-Édouard Picot, William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the École des beaux-arts in Paris. His early works consist mainly of portraits and still lifes. Later, he painted nudes in the line of Bouguereau, a theme he continued to develop while experimenting with the new medium of photography. He participated for the first time in the Salon of French artists in 1877 with a religious subject and obtained an honorable mention there in 1893. He presented Spring Flowers at the Salon of 1895 before first obtaining a 3rd class medal in 1899, then a 2nd class medal in 1902 for his painting Feuilles Mortes !, a composition with symbolist accents. Alexandre-Jacques Chantron died on January 3, 1918 in Nantes, a city where he had practiced most of his life. Two minor old repairs are visible on the back of the canvas.