Keywords: French Art, 19th Century, Neo-Grec, Neoclassical, Coastal Scene, Seaside, Female Figure, Bicycle, Brittany, Figurative Art, Academic Art, Orientalism

Authentometer™: A9*

Summary:
Henri Pierre Picou (French, 1824–1895), signed ‘Henry Picou.’ Oil on canvas painting depicting a young girl seated upon rocks beside the sea, with a bicycle resting at her side and low buildings and a distant shoreline visible beyond. Signed ‘Henry Picou’ and dated 1893 at the lower right.

Henri Pierre Picou was a French Neoclassical and Neo-Grec painter known for his mythological, historical, allegorical, and Orientalist subjects. He was born in Nantes, France, on February 27, 1824.

Picou studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under the Swiss academic painter Charles Gleyre (1806–1874). Gleyre became an influential teacher whose students included Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. His emphasis on precise draughtsmanship, composition, and perspective was also influential upon Picou’s artistic development.

During his studies, Picou became associated with like-minded artists including Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), Jean-Louis Hamon (1821–1874), and Gustave Boulanger (1824–1888). Together, these artists became closely associated with the development of the Neo-Grec movement, which drew inspiration from the art, mythology, history, and everyday life of classical Greece and Rome while applying the highly finished techniques of French academic painting.

Picou’s work displays particularly close stylistic connections to that of his teacher Gleyre. Gleyre’s extensive travels through the Mediterranean and Near East also contributed to the Orientalist interests that emerged among artists within his circle and can be seen in aspects of Picou’s oeuvre. Although Picou became best known for classical, mythological, and Orientalist compositions, his career also encompassed portraiture and genre painting, making this 1893 seaside subject an interesting example from the final years of his career.

(Painting good with some overall craquelure. Frame with noticeable chips, scratches, and wear to the finish)

Measurement: Art: 22 x 18 in. (55.9 x 45.7 cm.), Frame: 25 3/4 x 22 in. (65.4 x 55.9 cm.) approx

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