Painting Detail
FlowersArtist: Saint Jean Simon
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 47x38 cm
Date: 1856
Genre: Flowers, Still Life
Source: Museum of the Academy of Arts, Petrograd, 1922
Saint-Jean Simon was born in Lyon in 1808. A Lyonnais at heart, he ultimately embraced the Lyon tradition of flower painting and textile design and became the most successful of all Lyonnais flower painters. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon with Augustin Thierriat and Francois Lepage, both highly-regarded flower painters, and began exhibiting at the Lyon Salon in 1827.
At this time he was employed by the Didier-Petit textile company, for which he produced floral fabric designs of considerable skill, notably a bouquet of roses depicted with great botanical accuracy. He showed at the Paris Salon from 1834 until 1859, earning second-class medals in 1841 and 1855 and state purchase of a work entitled The Flower Girl in 1838.
Saint-Jean’s strong emphasis on drawing, as well as his experience in textile design led to a crisp, detailed style of execution. In addition to his concentration on detail, Saint-Jean has also been noted for his use of allegory, assimilating a northern still-life tradition into the Lyonnais practice.