Enfilade

Charlotte Eustache Sophie de Faligny Damas, marquise de Grollier, Still Life with a Vase of Flowers, Melon, Peaches, and Grapes, 1780, oil on canvas, 46 × 56 cm (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Friends of European Paintings Gifts, 2022.264).

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently acquired an early still life by the marquise de Grollier, a French painter largely ignored in the history of art, though Antonio Canova described her as “the Raphael of flower painting.” The object webpage went live on Friday, with a catalogue entry by David Pullins.

Charlotte Eustache Sophie de Faligny Damas, the marquise de Grollier (1741–1828), “painted flowers with great superiority,” in the words of her artist-friend Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. However, Grollier’s aristocratic status prevented her from painting professionally or from exhibiting her work to any extent. Still Life with a Vase of Flowers, Melon, Peaches, and Grapes from 1780 is one of the artist’s earliest dated works, and shows how Grollier worked through a number of technical challenges as she mastered the still life genre. The acquisition is part of The Met’s goal of expanding the narratives told in its European Paintings galleries. It will be displayed in late 2023, when the galleries are fully reinstalled upon the completion of the Skylights Project.

More information about the painting is available here»