ROBERT CHAILLOUX
( 1913 - 2006 )
A characteristic Autumnal arrangement from a painter who built his career on humble kitchen and orchard subjects treated with near-trompe-l'oeil precision. Sweet chestnuts spill from a woven osier basket lined with moss, some still sealed in their spiny green burrs, others split to show the polished mahogany shells beneath. Two autumn leaves — one russet, one turning crimson — anchor the lower right and supply the only strong colour note.
Behind the basket stands a salt-glazed stoneware jug or coffee pot, its greenish body catching a soft raking light, with a smaller glazed bowl and the rim of a copper pan half-lost in shadow at right. The wall is the quiet triumph of the picture: cracked, flaking plaster rendered in thin scumbles of cream and ochre, dry-brushed to imitate the pitted surface of old lime render.
Chailloux worked in an idiom descending from Chardin by way of Bonvin and Desgoffe, favouring modest objects, a warm neutral palette and controlled, almost invisible brushwork. The composition is deliberately unhurried, built on a low horizontal shelf with a single vertical accent. His work has remained steadily collected, particularly in France and the United States.
Title: “Chestnuts on a table"
Signature: Signed lower left
Provenance: Private french collection
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: c. 18 x 22 inches unframed / 25 x 29 inches framed
Condition: Excellent for age - needs a light clean
French, 20th century, male.
Born 23 April 1913, in Paris.
Painter. Landscapes, still-lifes.
Chailloux studied at the special drawing school on the Boulevard de Belleville. Using a meticulous technique, he painted still-lifes, landscapes of the Île-de-France, and other compositions, sometimes with allegorical themes. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1940, at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1943, and at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants in Paris in 1945. He regularly took part in the Salon d'Hiver and the Salon de la Marine.
Auction Records
New York, 18 July 1984: Still-life (oil on canvas, 20 × 24 ins/50.8 × 61 cm) USD 1,000
London, 4 Feb 1999: Grapes, Peaches and a Copper Pan on a Draped Table (oil on canvas, 21 × 26 ins/54 × 65 cm) GBP 1,300
London, 4 Feb 1999: Ladles, Mushrooms, Garlic, Jar and Two Jugs on a Draped Table (oil on canvas, 29 × 24 ins/74 × 60 cm) GBP 2,000
New York, 28 March 2000: Still-life of Cherries, Bread, Jug and Glass of Wine (oil on canvas, 18 × 22 ins/46 × 55 cm) USD 2,000
London, 24 July 2001: Still-life with Apples (oil on canvas, 20 × 24 ins/50 × 61 cm) GBP 2,700
Bath, 22 Oct 2002: Still-life with Tomatoes (oil on canvas, 17 × 21 ins/44 × 53 cm) GBP 1,230
Bath, 22 Oct 2002: Blue Thistles. Olives (oil on board, a pair, 13 × 10 ins/33 × 25 cm) GBP 1,350
Cranbrook, 25 May 2003: Still-life of Fruit and Jug on a Ledge (oil on canvas, 18 × 21 ins/46 × 53 cm) GBP 3,500
Cranbrook, 14 Dec 2003: Still-life of Physalis in a Jug (oil on canvas, 14 × 11 ins/36 × 28 cm) GBP 2,900
Chester, 17 March 2004: Still-life of Earthenware Vessels, Fruit and Horse Chestnuts on a Ledge (oil on canvas, 17 × 21 ins/44 × 53 cm) GBP 1,900
Partridge Green, 8 Sept 2004: Still-life Study of a Jug, Bowl and Three Eggs (oil on panel, 10 × 13 ins/26 × 34 cm) GBP 1,300
