René Chancrin [1911-1981] : Nature morte avec bougie allumée, enveloppe et backgammon [Still life with lit candle, envelope and backgammon], ca.1960s-1970s.

$1,850

René Chancrin [1911-1981]
French Realist still-life oil painter
Nature morte avec bougie allumée, enveloppe et backgammon [Still life with lit candle, envelope and backgammon], ca.1960s-1970s.
Oil on canvas
34 x 27 inches [framed]
Signed at lower right: ‘R. Chancrin’.

TITLES:
2023 Nature morte avec bougie allumée, enveloppe et backgammon [Still life with lit candle, envelope and backgammon]

CONDITION:
Original untouched condition.

DESCRIPTION:
Throughout his career as a French painter, René Chancrin drew inspiration from fellow French artists Georges de La Tour and René Magritte. De La Tour was known for incorporating candle imagery into his paintings, while Magritte’s flat, surreal style of the 1940s and 1950s also profoundly influenced Chancrin. This painting, Nature morte avec bougie allumée, enveloppe et backgammon [Still Life with Lit Candle, Envelope and Backgammon] (c. 1980), perfectly exemplifies these two key influences on Chancrin’s work. The crisp, tight illustrative style and muted gray tones with touches of bright red oranges reflect trends in painting from the late 1960s and early 1980s. Like his mentors before him, Chancrin made these stylistic elements his own, resulting in a distinctive body of work that paid homage to the past while remaining grounded in the present.

PROVENANCE:
2023 ( David Smernoff, New Haven, CT & New York, NY ) ;
after ca.1980 Private collection of [unknown] ;
ca.1980 René Chancrin [1911-1981], the artist .

EXHIBITION:
– [none known] ;

REFERENCES:
– [none known] ;

BIOGRAPHY:
René Chancrin (2 April 1911 – 12 July 1981) was a French painter known for his still life paintings. He was born in Villeurbanne and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon under Jacques Laplace and Auguste Morizot. Influenced by 18th century Dutch painting, Chancrin became known for his precise still life compositions as well as some portraits and landscapes.

Chancrin began exhibiting his work in 1928 at the Salon d’Automne in Lyon. In 1934 he joined the Nouveau groupe and exhibited in Paris. During World War II, his appointment as a professor of drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon enabled him to avoid military service.

Throughout his career, Chancrin participated in numerous exhibitions, developing a distinctive style marked by serenity, inner spirituality, and mastery of light and color. His balanced compositions reflect his unique sensibility.

Among Chancrin’s notable pupils were Henri Lachièze-Rey, Jacques Truphémus, Pierre Doye, and Jacques Lescoulié. He continued painting and teaching until his death on 12 July 1981 in Fréjus. Chancrin’s works can be found in various museums and private collections.

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