School of Paris

School of Paris

(French, c. 1912-19I6)

Table-Top Still Life with Coffee and Tea Pots and Three Pitchers.

Oil on linen

18 x 36 inches

21 ½ x 40 inches framed

Unsigned

Original French stretchers

Fine quality French linen, 2 pieces seamed together

Note: During World War I when money and art supplies were difficult to come by, many artists seamed together linen from smaller rolls as the wider width

linen was much more expensive as well as being difficult to procure.

Inscription: Inscribed twice, once on the top stretcher and once on the bottom stretcher in red cursive handwriting Galerie Pantin

Framed with a black frame to museum conservation standards.

This arresting Table Top Still Life from c. 1912-1916 shares technique, composition and palette with a number of artists who formed The School of Paris. These artists, many of whom were Jewish and either Russian or Eastern European emigres clustered in Montparnasse and included Marc Chagall, Moise Kisling, Emmanuel Mane-Katz, Louis Marcoussis, Amadeo Modigliani, Simon Mondzain, Jules Pascin and Chaim Soutine. The heavily impastoed surface, the controlled but expressive brushwork and the wonderful colors - inky, indigo blue, rich black, cadmium red and the light blue and turquoise passages most closely recalls Soutine's work. Without old exhibition labels, provenance or a signature it is very difficult to establish authorship. There were many other artists active in Paris who were peripheral to the School of Paris and it could be that this painting is by one of them. Signed or unsigned, this work has great integrity and character.