Hippolyte Petitjean

HIPPOLYTE PETITJEAN (Mâcon 1854 - Paris, 1929) .
"Bouquet de Fleurs".
Watercolor on paper.
With exhibition labels on the back.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 36 x 29 cm; 52 x 44 cm (frame).
The artist of this work configures a scene of popular character through small touches of brush, which reveal a composition where the colorful and vibrant movement of the scene is faithfully reflected. During the 19th century, France experienced a strong industrialization and urban development that brought great changes in society. This fact caused artists to look beyond their workshops, drawing inspiration from nature and everyday life, from its details.
Hippolyte Petitjean received an academic artistic training in Mâcon, France, later obtaining a scholarship from that city to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a student of Alexandre Cabanel and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. He made his debut at the Salon in 1880, where he exhibited until 1891. In 1884 he met Georges Seurat, whose optical theories influenced his style, which became successively academic, symbolist, impressionist and pointillist. In 1891, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and at the art gallery Le Barc de Boutteville with Symbolist and Impressionist artists, and in Brussels at the Salons du Groupe des XX and de la Libre Esthétique.