MELANIE DE COMOLERA (ACTIVE BETWEEN 1816... - Lot 160 - Osenat

Lot 160
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Estimation :
3000 - 5000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 9 375EUR
MELANIE DE COMOLERA (ACTIVE BETWEEN 1816... - Lot 160 - Osenat
MELANIE DE COMOLERA (ACTIVE BETWEEN 1816 AND 1854) Composition of fruits and flowers Circular white marble Width: 42 cm Restored fractures. It was at the Royal Manufacture of Sèvres that Melanie de Comoléra began her artistic career, around 1817. We know from the registers and inscriptions on some of her works that she was a pupil of Cornelis van Spaendonck, an academician and, like her brother Gérard van Spaendonck, a very famous painter of flowers at the time. Melanie trained mainly on porcelain and glass, but later on she became famous on canvas and marble when she was established. Shortly before 1826, she left Paris for London where she had a very successful career until the end of her life. In 1827, she was appointed flower painter to the Duchess of Clarence. Three years later, when her husband ascended the throne as William IV, she became Queen Adelaide's painter. During these years, Melanie de Comoléra worked a lot, always participating regularly both in the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, from 1826 to 1854, and in the Paris Salon, from 1817 to 1839. Also retaining her title during Victoria's reign, Mélanie had a relatively long official career. Her works were part of the greatest collections, both English and French, since Flowers in a Vase was in the Duke of Berry's sale in 1834, and even today some of her compositions are preserved in Chatsworth in the Duke of Devonshire's collections. Like Redouté and his pupils, Mélanie de Comoléra took part in the craze for flower compositions at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, in which many women artists distinguished themselves. Throughout her career, she kept the memory of the works of her master, Cornelis van Spaendonck, creating delicate compositions of flowers with some birds, fruits or insects. As on our marble or in her composition Flowers and Fruit on an Entablature, Melanie often incorporated bunches of grapes into her bouquets, or even a few currants, as in her Still Life of Flowers and Fruit with Two Birds (Sotheby's New York, May 2& 1998, n° 111). Also executed on circular white marble, this work most certainly dates from the same years as ours. We find the same harmonious composition, full and balanced, as well as rich colors. Our bouquet is composed, among others, of imperial fritillaries, roses, irises and an althea.
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