Collection of Arthur Warren Kincade
Lot 19
Jules Cyrille Cavé(French, 1859-1940)Meditation 47 1/2 x 35 1/4in (120.7 x 89.5cm)
8 July 2020, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$62,575 inc. premium
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Jules Cyrille Cavé (French, 1859-1940)
Meditation
signed '- J. CAVE -' (lower left)
oil on canvas
47 1/2 x 35 1/4in (120.7 x 89.5cm)
signed '- J. CAVE -' (lower left)
oil on canvas
47 1/2 x 35 1/4in (120.7 x 89.5cm)
Footnotes
Provenance
Collection of Arthur Warren Kincade, Wichita, Kansas;
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Jules-Cyrille Cavé was born in Paris in 1859. He studied under Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1912), a painter of historical genre and Professor of the Académie Julian, joining the ranks of a generation of European and American artists influenced by its teachers, most notably the great Salon painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905). It was Bouguereau's distinctive style that Cavé adopted and became a significant influence both stylistically and in terms of subject and treatment, throughout his artistic career. Cavé's work gently lessened the concerns of modern life allowing his models to represent the simplicity of country life. There is a timelessness to Cavé's compositions, the smooth brushwork removing the presence of the painter, creating a balance between the static form of the model and composition, combined with rich surface details, textures, and color. At the same time, the artist carefully models his figures, detailing the rough cloth of their costumes and their natural complexions. All of these aspects of the artist's intentions, treatments and influences are clearly exemplified in the magnificent work Meditation. As such, Cavé's work celebrates the real and the idealized, connected yet apart from the daily life of the nineteenth century.
Cave found early success in 1886, being awarded a medal and becoming a member of the 'Sociétaires des Artistes Français' in 1887, winning further accolades, and bronze medals in 1889 and 1900. He painted portrait commissions, religious and allegorical subjects in the Salon tradition, young girls, genre scenes and still lives. Cave's portraits of young girls and allegorical subjects were his most favored and desired and these compositions brought him great financial success. Through the early twentieth century, Cavé's work was collected beyond his motherland, and his paintings could be found in collections throughout Europe, South America, and in prominent American collections.