De Longpre, Paul (1855-1911).

Still Life - Roses and bumblebees by Paul De Longpre (1855-1911) 20" x 15.5", Watercolor/paper, Signed and Dated Lower Left Est.: $20,000 - $30,000 Sold by John Moran Auctioneers for $44,062.50 on 6/24/2008

De Longpre, Paul (1855 – 1911)

Known as the “King of Flowers”, Paul de Longpre enjoyed a reputation as the supreme painter of floral subjects in America during his lifetime and his work continues to enthrall collectors today. He was born in 1855 in Lyon, France to a family of artists and delighted in painting flowers from a young age. Largely taught by his family or self-taught, de Longpre began his professional life at the age of 12 as a fan painter and by the age of twenty he was well known and earning a comfortable living as a designer for the textile industry. He also painted botanical illustrations for horticultural magazines and exhibited his watercolor and gouache paintings at the Paris Salon and the Paris Independents exhibition. Upon immigrating to the United States in 1890, he settled in New York City and, after a few difficult years, mounted a successful self-financed exhibition. Thereafter, his paintings, displaying his technical mastery of the watercolor medium, a highly polished realism, and enticing colors and combinations of floral varieties, attracted large and steadily expanding audiences. As talented a marketer as he was a painter, de Longpre quickly gained national recognition through various exhibitions and commercial exposure. While his original oils and watercolors brought large sums, he reached a broader audience through the innumerable reproductions of his works made for advertisements, magazine covers, and packaging, and the chromolithographs that were sold for reasonable prices or given away as newspaper supplements and magazine subscription premiums. It is estimated that one million reproductions of his paintings were released during his lifetime, as well as others in the 1940’s and 1990’s, and these remain highly collectible. He often used props like vases, baskets, and doilies in his compositions or enlivened them with bumblebees and butterflies, and always portrayed his subjects with botanical accuracy. Though scientifically correct, his work also clearly conveys a passion for his subjects and reflects the long tradition of French flower painting with its lushness and delicacy. After moving to Hollywood in 1899, de Longpre built on a large plot on Cahuenga Boulevard an exotic Moorish-style mansion that doubled as a gallery. He planted an expansive garden on the property containing at its height 800 varieties of roses, his most popular subject. The garden became a very popular tourist attraction, one of the first landmarks in the young city. A charming and hospitable man, with a gift for conversation, de Longpre was also a social and civic leader who initiated campaigns for various national art institutions. De Longpre Boulevard was named in his honor.

Sources:

Hall, Nancy C. The Life and Art of Paul de Longpre. Irvine: Irvine Museum, 2001.

Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California 1786-1940. Sacramento: Crocker Art Museum, 2002.

McClelland, Gordon T. California Watercolors 1850-1970. Santa Ana: Hillcrest, 2002