Profil en automne by Jean Pierre Cassigneul

Jean-Pierre Cassigneul
b.1935 | French

Profil en automne
Profile in Autumn

Signed “Cassigneul” (lower right)
Oil on canvas

Unflinchingly bold and sophisticated, Profil en automne is a beautiful portrait in oil by the celebrated French painter Jean-Pierre Cassigneul. Capturing a stylishly-dressed woman against a backdrop of stylized changing autumn leaves, the work is characterized by strong composition and dramatic color arrangements. Cassigneul's mastery in the handling of color and paint is clearly on display, as well as his remarkable ability to create portraits of intense power and expression.

One of the most popular living French artists, Cassigneul is set apart by his unique talent for works that feel both dramatically contemporary and timeless in style. Here, Cassigneul's signature sleepy-eyed beauty looks up from her book at the viewer, representing one of the artist's favorite tropes of the stylish lady at leisure. Profil en automne exemplifies Cassigneul's ability to compose a painting that balances the classical conceptions of beauty with a distinctly modern, urbane sophistication. With its vibrant palette and flat spatial planes, Cassigneul’s style follows in the tradition of the French Post-Impressionist group known as Les Nabis, which included celebrated French artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard and Maurice Denis. Expressionist painter Kees van Dongen was another important influence on the young Cassigneul, whose portraits resemble van Dongen’s elongated, sharply contoured female forms.

Born in Paris in 1935, Cassigneul's grandfather was the founder of the ground-breaking French fashion house Jean Dessès. Raised among the glamour and excitement of the Parisian fashion world, the young Cassigneul observed models, dressmakers and runway shows from a very young age. His interest in art also manifested early, and he painted his first landscape at Deauville at the young age of 12. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, holding his first one-man exhibition at just 17. Since that first show, his work has been widely exhibited throughout the world, particularly in Western Europe, the United States, and Japan, where he enjoys an especially devoted following.

Canvas: 18 1/4” high x 21 3/4” wide
Frame: 28” high x 31 1/2” wide