Still Life with Mums

Still Life with Mums
Signed and dated “Lacroix, N.Y. 65.”, 1865
Oil on board
10½” x 13½”
Condition: (see full condition report)
Source: Godel & Co., New York City, New York

Paul LaCroix came to New York City from his native France as a young man. He was listed as an artist in city directories in 1857 and began exhibiting his still lifes at the National Academy of Design in 1863. He continued to send pictures to the National Academy of Design exhibitions for the rest of his life, as well as exhibiting at the Brooklyn Art Museum. He moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, a community of artists, in 1867. His work is often compared favorably to the work of Severin Rosen, a successful German painter who arrived in the United States a decade earlier.

LaCroix excelled at depicting the complex geometry of foreshortened stems and blossoms. At the same time, he observed the principles of English critic John Ruskin, painting in truth to nature, with common flowers simply laid on a bare table.