Antoine BERJON (1754 - 1843) - Flowers

Berjon was the son of a butcher and grew up in the Vaise suburb of Lyons. He initially worked with his father; then, it is thought, he gave this up to study medicine, before learning to draw with the sculptor Perrache in Lyons. Eventually he became a designer at a silk manufacturer in Lyons, and began to paint. He often travelled to Paris on business, where he got to know several painters and became friends with the portrait artist Augustin. As a result of the destruction of the silk factory during the siege of Lyons, Berjon moved to Paris, where he lived in abject poverty for many years. He eventually returned to Lyons and went to work for an embroidery manufacturer and, in 1810, was employed as teacher of the flower painting class at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyons. In 1823 he was replaced by Thierriat, and after this became a total recluse. He remained in Lyons, living off a pension provided by the town, and carried on painting, although he stopped exhibiting. He made many enemies because of his violent temper, and his death was barely even reported in the newspapers. Over the course of his life he exhibited at the Paris Salon: in 1791 ( Eggs in a Basket and four other still lifes), 1798, 1799, 1804, 1810, 1817, 1819 and 1842, and was awarded a second-class medal in 1819. In 1796 he exhibited an engraving in Paris that he had made from a process of his own invention.

Besides his still lifes, flowers, fruit and miniatures, in oils and pastels, Berjon also left behind a number of watercolours, wash drawings, three-coloured chalk drawings on tinted paper and red chalk drawings. He was a renowned portraitist, but also drew and painted animals, stylised flowers for fabric decoration, and sketches for theatre costumes. Many of his works can still be seen in Lyons. A superb sepia portrait of a man was shown at a retrospective exhibition in Lyons in 1904. He signed his works: Berjon, A Berjon, Atne Berjon or At Berjon, though his drawings were often signed with his signature stamp.