Gabriel Griffon 1866-1938 Female Nude Oil Painting on Wood Panel

  

He is best known for his allegorical and genre paintings; his garden scenes and elegant party scenes recall the works of Watteau in the 18th century, but interpreted in a fluid, ethereal Post-Impressionist style. His palette is light and fresh, and his brushwork is subtle and assured. Today, his works are held in collections in Paris, London, New York, Boston, and Geneva.

The work depicts a female nude (a nymph or bather) sitting or kneeling at the water’s edge, set within a natural, wooded landscape. The pose is contemplative, imbued with softness and melancholy. It is an oil on wood panel painting (the reverse is visible), with a very free, vibrant, and textured pictorial touch (impasto technique / thick brushstrokes).

The face and body are not rendered in an academic manner, but suggested through plays of shadow and colored light. The foreground is dominated by earthy tones, with shades of green and ethereal blue in the background, while the body catches light tones of beige, pink, and a warm reddish glow.

Signature: It is clearly signed lower right G.

Frame: The work is presented in a rich, gilded composite/Rococo-style frame decorated with scrolls and acanthus leaves, typical of the framing of works from this period.

Style: Post-Impressionism / Neo-Romanticism with Symbolist tendencies.

Gabriel Griffon belongs to the tradition of painters of elegant or mythological scenes (evoking Watteau or Fragonard), reinterpreted through the lens of early 20th-century modernity. His vibrant technique sometimes recalls the work of Adolphe Monticelli (impasto and luminous highlights), although Griffon’s paint is often somewhat more fluid or vaporous depending on the subject.

The artist: He is known for his landscapes in light tones, his scenes of bathers, nymphs, and elegant gatherings bathed in a caressing, ethereal light.

Period: Late 19th century to the first third of the 20th century (circa 1900–1925).

Technique: Oil painting on wood panel.

Style: Late 19th century / early 20th century.

Original sold by the artist.

Dimensions: Oil painting on wood panel, height 22 cm, width 15 cm. Antique gilded wooden frame to be restored, height 45 cm, width 39 cm, depth 7 cm.

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