Louis Marie de Schryver
(French, 1862-1942)

"Les Premieres Fleurs", 1887

oil on canvas
signed and dated lower right. Presented in a handsome giltwood frame.
40" x 67"

Provenance: The art collection of the Narragansett Hotel, Providence, Rhode Island, under the auspice of hotel proprietor L. H. Humphreys, 1890-1908 and perhaps later through 1914; Christie's, New York, May 27, 1992, lot 61; Merryl Israel Aron, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Exhibited: Paris Salon of 1887, no. 2164.

Literature: Dumas, F. Exposition des Beaux-Arts, Salon de 1887: Catalogue Illustre. Paris: Lodovie Bachet Editeur, 1887, p. 296.; King, Moses and M. F. Sweetser. Kings Handbook of the United States. Buffalo, New York: Moses King Corporation Publishers, 1892, pp. 772-773; and Industries of Wealth of the Principal Points in Rhode Island, being the city of Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, Newport, Narragansett Pier, Bristol and Westerly. New York: A. F. Parsons Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 121-122.

Notes: "The flowers, these divine apparitions of nature, are they not the true companions of these pretty women? How we must praise and be grateful to Mr. Schryver for having assembled fresh flowers, ravishing colors and young seductive women in the same canvas. One only knows which of the two to truly prefer. … They are so beautiful that one would gladly stop to offer them flowers. Mr. Schryver has lavished a pleasing perfume of taste and elegance on this piece that makes you view these two Parisian femme-du-mondes in turn as aristocrats." --Louis Enault review of "Les Premieres Fleurs" at the Paris Salon of 1887." As Enault's overwhelming praise of "Les Premieres Fleurs" demonstrates, this still-life of figural and floral beauties epitomizes the French Belle Epoque- a period of burgeoning wealth and leisurely pursuits. Paris at the turn of the century was the epicenter of commerce and opportunity. With the Industrial Revolution, came shops, theaters, cafes and bars, and the grand boulevards, designed by Baron Haussmann in the 1850s, to accommodate the flourishing economy. Young women and men from the provinces flocked to the city in pursuit of a brighter future. Women found work as au pairs or as saleswomen in the fashionable department stores and boutiques, and enjoyed a level of freedom from the social strictures imposed on wealthy "respectable" women, who seldom frequented public places without the companionship of men. Some of these women, like the ones pictured here with their fine dresses and hats, found fortune as actresses, courtesans, or by marrying well, while others fell into far more ignoble metiers, that fellow Impressionists Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas captured in bar room scenes. As Enault's review illustrates, Schryver focused instead on the opportunity the city offered by showcasing women, independent of their "true" social class, as models of Parisian fashion; their clothing, like the flowers they behold, are an arrangement of the finest specimens sold on the grand boulevards. As a true Impressionist, Schryver repainted the same scene multiple times, capturing the flower vendors and their patrons in various lights and times of day, on different boulevards that illustrated the architectural splendor of the city.