French Normandy School Post-Impressionist Oil on Canvas Still Life Flowers Fruit by Franck Innocent, 1941

Details

Description

A very attractive French Post-Impressionist Rouen School (Normandy), oil on canvas still life painting, by Franck Innocent (1912-1983), signed and … Read more A very attractive French Post-Impressionist Rouen School (Normandy), oil on canvas still life painting, by Franck Innocent (1912-1983), signed and dated 1941.
This colorful still life is very well painted by one of the main artist's of the Rouen School. The painting depicts a tabletop scene on a white tablecloth, with a pottery jug and an arrangement of colorful chrysanthemums, with four pieces of fruit below and a pottery box, probably Quimper pottery from Brittany.
The painting is signed and dated lower left "Franck Innocent 1941" and is housed in the original gilded frame, the painting has just been cleaned by a professional conservator, condition is very good. This very attractive Post-Impressionist painting is ready to grace your wall.

Franck Innocent was born on November 20th, 1912 at Sahurs. He worked with the painter Marcel Couchaux, who was a student of Eugene Delatre who was a friend of Monet and Picasso, and the leader of Ecole de Rouen.
He was born on November 20th 1912, at Sahurs, a village near Rouen on the bank of the river Seine at about 15 km. As an only child, he was adored by his mother; he was sometimes dissipated, authoritarian, often mischievous. He distinguished himself, especially in his innate taste for drawing. His family left Sahurs for Sotteville-les-Rouen where Franck Innocent lived afterward as his parents were worrying for his future, they made him further his education at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce: this didn’t prevent him from taking painting lessons with Marcel Couchaux, a painter of Rouen School. Couchaux passed down to him his rigor, his passion of nature and his taste for country scenes. They both used to go away on bicycles most often to farms where they had to throw grains at hens and turkeys to attract and paint them. Franck Innocent once confessed that he found it hard to come back to the same subject, as he preferred to paint with more spontaneity.
It was in 1936 that his first exhibition took place at the “Galerie Legrip” in Rouen; in 1953 at Honfleur, he met André Warnod, an influential art critic at Le Figaro Newspaper, and thanks to him Franck Innocent’s exhibition in Paris was a success. Due to the war in 1940, unable to find any artist’s materials for painting he had to make many works on paper and even was resigned to using the bed sheets of the house.
After 1945 color disappeared completely from his works: the expression became powerful, conveying some profound inner suffering. It was in the early sixties that the joy of painting returned to him along with light and color in his work. This proved be the most productive period of his life. His canvases began with a knife, he then worked the dough with very long brushes. Franck Innocent sometimes confessed that he had not been able to go back to the subject, he preferred to paint with more spontaneity. In 1936 he made his first exhibition in Rouen, Legrip Gallery. In 1953, he met at Honfleur, Andre Warnod critic of Le Figaro who supported him in Paris. Curiously this part of his career began with a group exhibition in the famous gallery Bernheim Jeune Gallery, throughout his life he regularly exhibited in the Bernheim Jeune Gallery.
Bernheim-Jeune gallery is one of the oldest art galleries in Paris represented the most famous Impressionist Artists: Bonnard, Cezanne, Kees van Dongen, Dufy, Innocent, Modigliani, Utrillo. Opened on Rue Laffitte, in 1863 by Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), a friend of Delacroix, Corot, and Courbet, it changed location a few times before settling on Avenue Matignon. It is still managed by members of the same family. The gallery promoted realists, Barbizon school paintings and, in 1874, the first impressionist and later post-impressionist painters. Bernheim-Jeune started presenting, selling works of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Paul Cézanne, Henri-Edmond Cross, Kees van Dongen, Henri Matisse, Le Douanier Rousseau, Raoul Dufy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Amedeo Modigliani, Franck Innocent, Maurice Utrillo, and Georges Dufrénoy. After 1945 the color disappeared almost completely from his paintings, the works became essentially graphic, powerful, nostalgic translating deep inner suffering. It is at the beginning of the sixties that the color will returned to his work and did not leave him until its death.

Museums and public collections:
Museum of Modern Art of the city of Paris.
Museum of Fine Arts of Rouen.
Eugène-Boudin Museum of Honfleur.
Dieppe Castle Museum, Dieppe Harbor, Painting.
National Center for Plastic Arts, including deposits:
Sub-prefecture of Cognac, Le Bac Duclair, painting.
Mayor of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, Gladiolas, painting.
Pully Museum of Art (Switzerland).

Exhibitions
Gallery Legrip, Rouen, 1936, 1938, 1942, 1943, October-November 1946, March-April 1954.
Gallery Paul Blauseur, Paris, 1944.
Gallery Prigent, Rouen, 1945.
Gallery Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, January-February 1953.
Legrip Gallery, Rouen, March-April 1954.
Marcel Bernheim Gallery, Paris, 1955, 1956.
Gallery Saint-Placide, Paris, 1957, 19585, 1960, 1961, 1963.
Gallery Cimaise Mazarine, Paris, 1961.
Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, 1968.
Gallery Orfèvres, Paris, 1970.
Carlton Gallery, Cannes, December 1971 – January 1972.
Chantepierre Gallery, Aubonne (Vaud), 1972.
Medici Gallery, Paris, 1975.
Reyn Gallery, New York, 1976.
Gallery Denise Valtat, Paris, 1977.
Colette Dubois Gallery, Paris, 1978.
Cardo Gallery, Paris, 1980.
Retrospective Franck Innocent, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 1985, 1990, June-July 20016, June 20157.
Gallery Patrick Grindel, Rouen, 1986.
Paul Gauguin Center, Pont-Aven, June-July 1989.
Gallery Tuffier, Les Andelys, 1993.
Cultural Center of Revin, 1995.
Tribute to Franck Innocent, Yerville Town Hall, 2001.
Retrospective Franck Innocent, Departmental Council of Seine-Maritime, Departmental Hotel, Rouen, 2002.
Franck Innocent (1912-1983) – 120 canvases, gouaches and watercolors, Charles-Léandre Museum Space, Condé-sur-Noireau, May-June 2009 See less