François BONVIN (1817-1887) - Lot 32

François BONVIN (1817-1887) The Terrace at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1881. Oil on board, signed, dated and sent "to his friend Templaère". On the back, a long dedication to Gustave Tempelaere and an exhibition label from Raphael Gerard gallery. 46 x 55.5 cm Provenance: Gustave Tempelaere collection, and by descent. History: François Bonvin is one of the representatives of the French realist school of the 19th century, influenced by the painters of the 17th and 18th centuries (Le Nain, Chardin) and Dutch painters (Vermeer, De Hooch), whom he admired at the Louvre. Starting in 1848, he turned to landscapes, with a predilection for interiors, domestic occupations and still lifes. A resident of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, his health declined in the 1870s, and from 1880 onwards, the pain associated with stone disease progressed. In 1881, his doctor decided on an inevitable operation, dreaded by Bonvin as he prepared for his death. However, that same year, urged on by Gustave Tempelaere, whose ordinary painter he called himself, he relentlessly created a series of small-scale paintings. Ours, by its size, intimate subject and dedication, bears witness to this particular year in François Bonvin's life.