Lot 353: FRANÇOIS LEPAGE LYON 1796-1871

STILL LIFE OF PEACHES, PLUMS, A BUNCH OF GRAPES AND AN EMPIRE SILVER WATER PITCHER ALL RESTING ON A LEDGE

STILL LIFE OF PEACHES, PLUMS, A BUNCH OF GRAPES AND AN EMPIRE SILVER WATER PITCHER ALL RESTING ON A LEDGE

measurements note
18 1/4 by 15 in.; 46.4 by 38.1 cm.

signed and dated lower right Lepage / 1822

oil on canvas

NOTE

A native of Lyon, François Lepage became a professor of that city's Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1826. He was known for his sumptuous still lifes of fruits and flowers, many of which he exhibited at the Salon de Paris from 1822 - 1835.

The Empire silver water pitcher depicted here is in the style of Jean-Baptiste Claude Odiot (1763 - 1850) or Martin-Guillaume Biennais (1764 - 1843), two of the most renowned silversmiths and cabinetmakers of the last decade of the eighteenth and the first decades of the nineteenth centuries. Both men enjoyed the patronage of Napoleon I (Biennais became his personal silversmith during the Consulate) and other illustrious figures, such as Thomas Jefferson (Odiot) and Napoleon's sister, Pauline Bonaparte, Princess Borghese (Biennais).