Charmy – Peonies and Poppies in a Glass Vase

Émilie Charmy
(1878 St. Etienne – 1974 Paris)

PEONIES AND POPPIES IN A GLASS VASE

Oil on canvas, 60.5 x 50 cm
Signed lower right: Charmy, label from Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart on the reverse

Provenance:
Estate of the artist;
Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart;
Private collection, Germany

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

Still lifes are Charmy’s most common 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. When there was nothing left to learn in Lyon, she moved to Paris, where the enterprising art dealer Berthe Weill, who had an eye for exceptional artists, took her under her wing and arranged a solo exhibition for her at the Galerie Druet in 1912. In 1913, Charmy was the first woman to participate in the Armory Show in New York. Several of her works are in American collections, such as ‘L’Estaque’ from 1910 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The painting ‘Peonies and Poppies in a Glass Vase’ against a blue background perfectly exemplifies her powerful, independent, modern style. Every stroke is precise, the flowers are modelled in impasto paint, and the sweep of the abstract background perfectly echoes the shape of the vase. She also mastered the art of still life painting, the depiction of glass vessels, with flying colours. Her painting can easily compete with comparable motifs by Edouard Manet or Lovis Corinth. In her vase, she limited herself to very few concise brushstrokes and lines. Simple and ingenious!