Jean GEOFFROY dit GEO (Marennes 1853 - Paris 1924) - Lot 27

Jean GEOFFROY dit GEO (Marennes 1853 - Paris 1924) Bouquet aux lys blancs, 1914 Oil on canvas signed, dated and dedicated lower right to Madame Variot H_59.5 ; W_48.5 cm Still lifes are virtually absent from Jean Geoffroy's work. The only known ones are dedicated to the intimacy of the families with which the artist created a close bond. These freshly picked lilies seem to emerge from the frame. They are the subject of a very spontaneous composition by the artist, who probably painted them during a stay with the Variots, in Burgundy or on the Ile de Bréhat. The work was a gift to Marguerite, Gaston Variot's 19-year-old daughter, just a few months after the start of the Great War, in which her two brothers were involved, and in which they both perished in 1918. Bibliography : Dominique LOBSTEIN, Jean Geoffroy dit Géo 1853-1924, Une œuvre de généreuse humanité, Éditions du Croit Vif, Saintes, 2015, p. 135.