Louis Marie de Schryver

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has been recently restored and should be hung in its current condition. The canvas has been lined and the paint layer is stable. The artist himself added a section of canvas across the bottom edge situated approximately 1 ½ inches from the bottom, which has required a small amount of retouching along the join. Elsewhere the paint layer is clean. Under ultraviolet light, there are restorations visible addressing what may be another canvas join running vertically through the middle of the picture and an associated tear, which has been repaired near this join in the palm tree in the center background. Some restorations in the palm fronds have also been retouched. There are further restorations situated around the edges in the cheek of the flower seller, beneath her right hand in her dress and in a few other isolated spots here and there. None of these restorations are significant. There most likely exists a little dirt on the paint layer, which is visible in the flowers particularly, but since the paint layer is a little over cleaned in the blue dress of the flower seller, it is recommended not to clean any further and simply to adjust some of the retouches, particularly to the canvas joins in the center. Overall however, the condition is very respectable and with a little maintenance, the picture will be ready to hang.
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Louis Marie de Schryver was born into a prominent Parisian family with strong ties to the literary and artistic circles of the city. De Schryver's father was a man of letters and a connoisseur of fine art, and enjoyed friendships with several distinguished artists, including Jean Jacques Henner, Rosa Bonheur and Philippe Rousseau. Through his passion for art and his artistic connections he encouraged his son to pursue a career as a painter.

A precocious child, de Schryver exhibited his first painting at the age of thirteen in the Salon des Champs-Elysées, an early beginning to what was to become a long and distinguished career. As a member of the privileged upper class, from which he would often use his family connections and friends as models for his pictures, de Schryver innately understood the spirit of the Belle Époque and the concerns of fashionable society. He developed a special interest in the proliferation of flower vendors in Paris and chose them as the central subject of his oeuvre. Their daily presence on the boulevards reflected the unquenchable desire of Parisians for beauty, colour and scent. The bounteous and varied blossoms offered by the flower vendors appropriately mirrored the beauty and costumes of the ladies of fashion whose salons and boudoirs de Schryver's paintings surely graced.

In the present work, de Schryver's flower seller is virtually engulfed by her impressive offering of domestic and exotic flowers. From the delicate azaleas, to the brilliant orchids, to the simple daisies, to the lush roses - each blossom's vibrant petals betray a distinct personality, demonstrating de Schryver's consummate skill as a painter.