Alfred Pierre Joseph AGACHE (Lille 1843 - Cour-sur-Loire 1915) Decorative study Round canvas Signed and dated lower right "Alf Agache 1899". Diam: 130 cm (old restorations) Exhibition: Paris, Salon de la Société nationale des Beaux-Arts 1899, Champ-de-Mars, palais des Beaux-Arts, no. 3: Etude décorative (illustrated catalog, repr. p.14). Bibliography :E. Garit, Alfred Agache (1843-1915): un langage symbolique en marge du symbolisme, ed. François Robichon, p. 805 no. 54. After several trips to Italy, where he copied the Renaissance masters, to Egypt and Japan, Agache settled in his native Lille. He regularly participated in the salons of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His best-known paintings are L'Enigme (1888, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen), Fortuna (1885, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille). Through classical compositions, he surprises the viewer by introducing unexpected elements. Here, for example, the combination of carpet, Corinthian capital and ring of time links the painting to the Symbolist movement. The female model, for its part, is to be compared with that of La Femme aux thistles (1905, Musée de la Piscine, Roubaix).