68 - Jacqueline MARVAL (Quaix-en-Chartreuse, 1866 – Paris, 1932)

Jacqueline MARVAL (Quaix-en-Chartreuse, 1866 – Paris, 1932) Bouquet of Roses on a Sunny Balcony Original oil on canvas 100 x 76 cm Signed lower right: Marval We thank the Jacqueline Marval Committee for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will be included in the artist’s Catalogue Raisonné currently in preparation. With “Bouquet of Roses on a Sunny Balcony,” Jacqueline Marval invites us into her intimate world, at the heart of early 20th-century artistic Paris. Beginning in 1916, the artist moved to 19 Quai Saint-Michel, an address that would play a significant role in her daily life and her work. Located on the banks of the Seine, facing the Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame de Paris, this apartment-studio offered her an exceptional view, and its windows gradually became a recurring motif in her compositions. This new environment marked a period of artistic maturity for the artist, who was already well-established in the Parisian art scene. Close friends with Henri Matisse and Albert Marquet, with whom she maintained close ties, Marval moved within a particularly dynamic circle of painters who found a renewed source of inspiration in their everyday surroundings. Views of the Seine, urban perspectives, and openings to the outdoors thus fueled their respective artistic explorations. In Marval’s work, the window is not merely a decorative element: it becomes a true compositional device, connecting the interior space with the Parisian outdoors. In this bouquet, the viewer’s gaze is invited to wander between the flowers and the window in the background, which situates the still life within a specific architectural and geographical setting. The blue striped fabric, which appears in several of his compositions, is another characteristic element of this domestic world. Used as much as a pictorial prop as a curtain in his apartment-studio, it attests to the close connection between the artist’s daily life and the motifs in his paintings. Based on its iconography and the presence of these elements characteristic of her interior, “Bouquet of Roses on a Sunny Balcony” can thus be dated to after 1916, likely toward the end of the decade. This work offers a particularly interesting insight into how Jacqueline Marval transformed her living environment into a repertoire of personal motifs, making her apartment on Quai Saint-Michel one of her primary sources of inspiration.