Lot 230: PAUL JEAN GERVAIS

PAUL JEAN GERVAIS 1859 - 1936 L'ART INDUSTRIEL DE L'ORFÈVRERIE signed Paul Gervais and dated 1883 (lower right) oil on canvas 65 3/8 by 87 3/4 in.; 166 by 223 cm.

The present work's pendant Hommage à la Bijouterie française sold in these rooms, May 26, 1993, lot 72. According to the Gervais family, the two pictures hung in the artist's parents' shop in Toulouse at the end of the century. LIke Bijouterie the present work may be an allegory from Gounod's opera Faust (1859). This popular opera was preformed frequently both in the Paris Opéra and the Opéra du Capitol in Toulouse.