Antique Oil Painting, French School, Still Life with Fruit and Grapes, 19th Century

  

Hello, I am offering this painting for sale. It measures 45.2 cm high by 58.1 cm wide and depicts a still life composed mainly of bunches of grapes and pomegranates.

The fruit is painted with such mastery that each grape, seemingly plump and bursting with juice, gleams like a tiny jewel. The pomegranates, shown cut open in various ways, have an unmistakably sensual, almost flesh-like quality, enhanced by a wonderfully appetising pinkish-red colour. The excellent composition also deserves mention, both in the placement of the individual elements and in the background, with its swirling forms and a beautiful green cloth crossed by streaks of shadow.

Despite some minor craquelure, consistent with an authentic painting, scattered signs of wear, small areas of paint loss, and a few discreet, well-executed retouches, the painting is in good, if not very good, overall condition. It appears to be varnished, judging by the reflections visible from different viewing angles. The canvas has been relined and is exceptionally taut.

Although the uppermost signature is partly illegible because of paint loss in that area, the fact that the signature appears twice was most likely intentional on the painter’s part, as the two are identical. In other words, the second signature was probably not added later by someone else to compensate for the partially illegible one. It is also positioned in a dark area, as though to avoid drawing attention away from the main signature.

The photographs were taken on a sunny afternoon, in a very well-lit room, using natural light.

The third and fourth photographs most accurately reflect the actual colours under those conditions. Please bear in mind, however, that computer and mobile phone screens other than my own may display the colours somewhat differently, depending on their settings.

With that in mind, you can still consider these two photographs reasonably faithful representations of the painting under the conditions described above. The final photographs show some of the reflections visible from different angles.

Collection in person is also possible if you are able to travel here.

IMPORTANT: The parcel is insured.

For this insurance to apply, you must take the following precautions if the box is sufficiently damaged anywhere—you will need to assess the extent of the damage when inspecting it—and/or has been opened, even partially.

If the parcel is delivered by La Poste, you must ask the delivery person to formally record the damage or opening.

If it is delivered to a parcel collection point, you must refuse the parcel unless the staff can record the damage or opening using their parcel-scanning device.

You will need to ask whether this is possible. If they can record it, you may then accept the parcel, but the damage must be recorded before they scan the shipping label or take any other action confirming that you have collected it.

In both cases, ask to inspect the entire box thoroughly, without overlooking any part of it, before the delivery person or collection-point staff confirm receipt.

For delivery to a collection point, if you refuse the parcel, it will be held there before being returned to the assessment service. According to information on their website, this allows an inspection to establish the delivery provider’s responsibility and activate the insurance if the item is damaged.

For delivery by La Poste, if the parcel is small enough to be left in your letterbox rather than handed to you in person, and the box is sufficiently damaged—you must judge the extent of the damage yourself—you must take it to your nearest post office without opening it and ask the counter staff to return it to me. According to information on their website, this also allows the delivery service to carry out an inspection.

The exception, as with delivery to a collection point, is if the post office staff can formally record the damage.

In all cases, please take photographs of any damage to the box and/or signs that it has been opened.

You may believe, for whatever reason, that the item inside is still in perfect condition despite the box being sufficiently damaged—you must assess this during your inspection—and/or opened, even partially. You might therefore decide not to ask for the damage to be recorded, or accept the parcel if recording it is not possible.

However, please understand that this amounts to playing Russian roulette. Delivery providers rely on people making mistakes, which conveniently works in their favour: as I have already explained, the insurance will then no longer cover the damage because responsibility has been transferred from the delivery provider to the sender or recipient. This means less expense for them, as they will not have to pay out the insured amount.

Do not rely on shaking the parcel to determine whether the item is broken, either. Unless the item is made of glass or ceramic, you may not hear any sound indicating breakage; alternatively, any noise you hear may simply come from protective packaging inside the parcel.

Please make sure that anyone collecting the parcel on your behalf is fully informed of all these instructions.

If, however, the returned item is in a different condition from when I sent it, and there is no evidence establishing that the delivery provider was responsible, no refund will be issued. Even with excellent packaging, an item can experience extremely severe impacts during transport without any visible damage to the outside of the box.

Such damage may not have occurred during the initial shipment and might have been avoided if the buyer had accepted the parcel, thereby preventing a second journey, which theoretically doubles the risks to the item.

If you have any questions or would like more photographs, please do not hesitate to contact me. I have other paintings listed on my profile.