Alexandre SÉON (Chazelles-sur-Lyon, 1855 - Paris, 1917) Study for Spring Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard Annotated and signed 'Etude pr le Printemps/ Décor Courbevoie/ Alex. Séon' lower right (Restorations) Study for The Spring, oil on canvas, signed, by A. Séon 12.60 x 9.84 in. 32.0 x 25.0 cm Provenance: Charles Masson Collection (1858-1931), curator of the Musée du Luxembourg ; Anonymous sale; Paris, Me Fraysse, 2 March 2011, no. 104 ; Acquired at this sale by Gérard Lévy; Gérard Lévy Collection; Then by descent Exhibitions: Alexandre Séon, La Beauté Idéale (1855-1917), Quimper, Musée des Beaux-arts, 19 June - 28 September 2015; Valence, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, October 2015 - February 2016, cat. no. 10: "Étude pour 'Le Printemps'", reproduced p. 131 Our seductive female figure is part of the creative process for Alexandre Séon's decoration of the marriage hall in the Courbevoie town hall between 1885 and 1889. At the time, the young artist was encouraged by his master Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, whose synthetic principles he had assimilated and applied to large-scale decorations, after assisting him with his large-scale compositions for the Sorbonne, the Panthéon and the staircase at the Musée des Beaux-arts in Lyon. These decorations for Courbevoie won Séon a silver medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition, where they met with critical acclaim. The artist divided the ceiling into four scenes evoking the seasons. In preparation for Spring, our youthful face, finely modelled in delicate brown tones, recalls the mysterious complexions of da Vinci's art, while already foreshadowing Séon's vibrant obsession with Greek purity. These multiple influences are brought together here in a perfectly balanced relationship, subjugating the colours to the drawing, the first incarnation of creative thought and the symbolic pillar of Séon's art. The work as a whole achieves a certain formal perfection in the treatment of the modelling, which imitates blurring, thanks to a brushstroke whose lightness, without passion, reaches the height of the absolute and incorruptible ideal towards which the artist never ceased to strive. Alexandre SÉON (Chazelles-sur-Lyon, 1855 - Paris, 1917) 32.0 x 25.0 cm Our seductive female figure is part of the creative process behind Alexandre Séon's decoration of the marriage hall at Courbevoie town hall between 1885 and 1889. At the time, the young artist was encouraged by his master Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, whose synthetic principles he had assimilated and applied to large-scale decorations, after assisting him with his large-scale compositions for the Sorbonne, the Panthéon and the staircase at the Musée des Beaux-arts in Lyon. These decorations for Courbevoie won Séon a silver medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition, where they met with critical acclaim. The artist divided the ceiling into four scenes evoking the seasons. In preparation for Spring, our youthful face, finely modelled in delicate brown tones, recalls the mysterious complexions of Da Vinci's art, while already foreshadowing Séon's vibrant obsession with Greek purity. These multiple influences are brought together here in a perfectly balanced relationship, subjugating the colours to the drawing, the first incarnation of creative thought and the symbolic pillar of Séon's art. The work as a whole achieves a certain formal perfection in the treatment of the modelling, which imitates blurring, thanks to a brushstroke whose lightness, without passion, reaches the height of the absolute and incorruptible ideal towards which the artist never ceased to strive.