ARTHUR CHAPLIN ~ Flowers in a Vase with Bird’s Nest on a Marble Pedestal

Arthur Chaplin, the son of renowned French genre painter Charles Chaplin (1825-1891), was born in Jouy-en-Josas (Seine-et-Oise) in 1869. He studied with Leon-Joseph-Florentin Bonnat (1834-1923) and Camille Bernier (1823-1903) and after a trip to Holland in 1898, settled in Paris, dedicating himself to the painting of flowers. Chaplin began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1899, receiving an honorable mention in 1903 and a third class medal in 1904, and at the Royal Academy in 1905. This example of Chaplin’s work is a highly complicated composition demanding the technical skills of only the finest artists. It has been scrupulously observed and painted with a subtle mastery of colour and character in the delineation of the flowers. The attention to detail is meticulous, painted in strong and rich colours with careful attention to perspective.