French school; first half of the 20th century.

French school; first half of the 20th century.
Untitled.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner "A. Bouvier".
Measurements: 65 x 92 cm.
In this still life the daily objects are organized in a composition of simple appearance, but of great plastic intensity. A vase with flowers, a plate with vegetables, a pitcher and a book, elements treated with a deliberate formal simplification that borders on the naïve without losing constructive intention, are arranged on a table of bright red, the composition is articulated by clearly defined color planes, where the dominant red dialogues with the dark background and with the contrasting accents of the greenish blue of the pitcher and the black tones of the vase. This expressive use of color, applied on almost flat surfaces and delimited by marked contours, generates a tension between the decorative and the structural. The perspective, slightly unstable, contributes to this sensation of space built more from intuition than from the academic norm.
The brushstroke, visible and direct, reinforces the materiality of the painting and underlines the immediate character of the representation. In this sense, the work is part of a modern tradition that, heir to the lessons of Henri Matisse and André Derain, understands color as an autonomous element capable of constructing pictorial reality on its own.