Claude Venard (French, 1913-1999)
Nature Morte avec Poisson et Tournesols

signed 'C.VENARD' (lower right); dated '1957' (to the canvas stretcher)
oil on canvas

Unframed: 100 x 100 cm. (39 1/2 x 39 1/2 in.) Framed: 101 x 101 cm. (39 3/4 x 39 3/4 in.)

Private Collection, Paris, 1998

A leading figure of the post-war École de Paris, Claude Venard is renowned for a distinctive post-Cubist style that deftly unites structural rigour with spontaneity. During the 1950s, Venard moved from the sombre realism of his youth towards a highly individualistic aesthetic that prioritised the physical presence of the medium. This mid-century maturity is marked by a mastery of the palette knife, employing thick layers of impasto which he would incise and scrape to reveal hidden depths of colour and form.

In Nature Morte avec Poisson et Tournesols, the composition centres upon a rhythmic interplay between the organic and the domestic. A towering white pitcher, anchored by heavy black outlines, serves as the principal vertical axis. From its mouth bursts a bouquet of sunflowers, their golden petals rendered with aggressive, sun-drenched strokes that echo the radiating energy of the artist’s technique. At the base rests a grey fish, a recurring motif in Venard’s oeuvre, its eye providing a singular, graphic focal point of stillness amidst the broken planes.

Venard’s still lifes appear fragmented and abstracted, as he deliberately combines multiple, layered views of his subjects within a single composition. The artist’s fascination with form and perspective is central, allowing the essence of the subject to emerge subtly through thick, richly textured brushstrokes, ultimately transforming a simple tabletop arrangement into a powerful exploration of light and matter.