Eugène Petit (1838–1886) - Bouquet Of Hollyhocks

Louis Marie Eugène Arthur PETIT
(Paris, 1838 – Paris, 1886)

Bouquet of Hollyhocks

Oil on canvas
Signed lower right
110 x 55 cm

Eugène Petit was born in Paris in the ninth arrondissement on July 8, 1838. He was the son of Simon Alexis Petit and Marie Jeanne Esther de Brunel de Varennes, daughter of Louis Clément de Brunel de Varennes, author of the famous L’art du dessin chez les Grecs published in 1816.

Petit was a student successively of Édouard Muller (1823-1876) and Jules Diéterle (1811-1889). He exhibited at the provincial Salons and of course at the Paris Salon, from 1863 until his death in 1886.

Petit had made a specialty of still life paintings of flowers and fruits. For example, of the thirty-nine paintings exhibited at the Salons during his career, only two did not have flowers or fruits as their subject… but rather animals (a peacock and a parrot). He had been so successful in his field that he obtained a 3rd medal at the Salon of 1873 and the silver-gilt medal of the Horticultural Society at the Rouen exhibition in 1879.
The critics were not to be outdone: “Bravo, Mr. Petit, your wild flowers are the poem of nature in bloom! It is fragrant and delightful.” » (Dictionnaire Véron of January 1, 1879, p.466).

The famous journalist and writer Charles Chincholle (1843-1902), fond of Petit's compositions, appreciated collecting them as his sale after his death indicates.

The artist died in Paris on November 19, 1886 at his home at 25 rue Turgot.