- Marie Benjamin Albert Andre
- French, 1869-1954
- "Bouquet des Fleurs blanches"
- Oil on Canvas
- 19 ¾ x 24 1/16 inches Framed: 25 3/8 x 29 1/8 inches
- Signed lower right
- Price on Request
Label on verso: A. André – 8641/Camélias/pibd Benjamin-Marie-Albert André was born in Lyon, a stronghold of Dutch-inspired flower painting. Thirty or so flower paintings by David de Heem, Van Dael, Van Brussel, Mignon and others were either purchased by the city of Lyon’s art gallery or bequeathed to it by the townspeople. Such pictures were used as reference works or models by the local aspiring flower painters and textile designers of Lyon of which André was both. In the still life "Bouquet des Fleurs blanches" Albert Andre depicts a timeless still life subject in his own signature style of painting. In a non-descript drawing room an arrangement of white, pink, and red gardenias arranged in a Dutch Delftware-inspired vase sits atop a marble fireplace surround neatly draped in a pink jacquard runner. Andre carefully constructs his “real life still life” composition eschewing any vivid, unnatural or arbitrary colors designed solely for expressive effect. Rather he chooses to paint exactly what he and the world sees—albeit a traditional Dutch still life of flowers with an updated or contemporary flair that is unique for this period. Both the setting and contents of the room are unpretentious. A small fan and nude sculpture lie next to the vase of gardenias on the mantel. The wallpaper and prints bespeak a comfortable but modest home. In his depiction André deviates from the dense brushwork commonly associated with the Impressionists. Instead he finds a medium between heavy and light pigment use. The color palette is intelligently chosen; André implements contrasting colors which lead the eye around the canvas. What sets this work apart from the portrayal of a traditional still life is Andre’s decision to position the view from a side angle as well as to place all the objects in a single plane, a common theme in both Impressionist and Post Impressionists works. Lastly the practice of employing a mirror often used by the Dutch painters of interior genre scenes opens up the canvas to reveal more of the drawing room view as well as to reflect more of the colorful still life of flowers, this time from the rear. Benjamin-Marie-Albert André, a renowned Post-Impressionist, was born in Lyon, France on May 24, 1869. He initially worked in the textile industry designing patterns for silk fabrics. In 1889 Andre traveled to Paris and joined L’Academie Julian where he studied under Benjamin Constant and William Bouguereau along with Paul Ranson, Louis Valtat, and Henry Bataille. He was influenced by the painting styles of Eugène Delacroix and Paul Cezanne. He exhibited for the first time in 1894 at the Salon des Indépendants where Pierre-Auguste Renoir saw his work and befriended him. Renoir introduced André to Durand-Ruel, who was successful in selling André’s work primarily abroad to American collectors. André continued to participate in several of these exhibitions especially the Salon d’Automne from 1904 to 1944. Like many painters of his generation who followed the Impressionists, André was not influenced by a single technique, but by a combination of many different styles and art movements. Over the years André developed his own unique style that set him apart from his contemporaries. He identified mostly with the Post-Impressionists but placed greater emphasis on form and content rather than on surface appearance. André attempted to show the world as it actually was by applying this concept with his unpretentious appreciation of the simplest things of everyday life and of nature, a quality also found in the paintings of his mentor Renoir. André was instrumental in the creation of the first contemporary art museum in France founded in Baignols-sur-Cèze near the border of Provence and the Rhone Alps. The museum contains works by Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Matisse, Charles Despiau, Édouard Manet, and Toulouse Lautrec. Andre is remembered and best known for his still lifes, interior scenes, landscapes, and especially for his figures in colorful landscapes.