Charmy – Geranium in a Glass Vase

Emilie Charmy
(1878 St. Etienne – 1974 Paris)

GERANIUM IN A GLASS VASE
Oil on wood, 34 x 25 cm, signed lower left: E Charmy

Provenance:
Estate of the artist

George Bouche has confirmed that the painting comes from the artist’s estate and is registered in the Emilie Charmy archive (15 August 2024).

Extravagant, courageous, independent and extremely distinctive, Emilie Charmy was a successful, avant-garde painter with her own ideas. Although she is little known today, she is one of the stars of our gallery’s collection. She belonged to the Fauvist circle, was friends with Matisse, Marquet, Valadon, Picasso, Modigliani and Camoin, and exhibited alongside them on an equal footing. Between 1908 and 1912, she had a stormy love affair with Camoin, which plunged him into a creative crisis when she left him, during which he cut up his paintings. During their trip to Corsica in 1910, when they were still happily together, they spurred each other on to artistic excellence, with Charmy painting more boldly and modernly than Camoin.

In 1912, she met the painter George Bouche. According to her son, Bouche initially mistook her for a man because of her independent, self-assured and confident painting style, which he admired, and was keen to get to know her. Without correcting his mistake, Charmy invited him to her studio and, when he entered, was painting a female nude. He was obviously even more impressed after the meeting. The two fell in love, and in 1915 their son Edmond was born. They did not marry until the 1930s. Charmy disregarded conventions and cherished her independence above all else, but she was also tolerant when Bouche went to Spain for several months each year to sell carpets. Still lifes are Charmy’s most frequent subjects alongside female nudes. She learned still life painting in 1898 from Jacques Martin in Lyon, who paved the way to success for her as her teacher and mentor.