Hippolyte Chaignet (1820-1865) - Fruit Still Life

Hippolyte Chaignet (1820-1865)
Nature Morte Aux Fruits
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
23 x 30 cm
Old label on reverse

Pierre-Bénigne, known as Pierre-Hippolyte or Hippolyte, Chaignet was born in Dijon on December 19, 1820. The son of a retired officer, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, winning second prize in 1835 for tête d'après l'estampe, and second prize in 1838 for copie de tableau. The young man wished to pursue his artistic studies and moved to Paris, where he entered the École des Beaux-Arts and became a pupil of the painter Léon Cogniet. On December 31, 1846, the City of Dijon granted him a grant of 800 francs for 1847, to help him financially.
After his father's death in 1850, having been unable to obtain an extension of his pension, he applied in 1854 for the post of drawing teacher at the Dijon School of Fine Arts, but, having "unfortunately manifested very exalted demagogic opinions in 1848", the post was awarded to the painter Pierre-Alexandre Jeanniot.
Hippolyte Chaignet opened a "flower and fruit drawing and painting class especially for ladies" in the pavilion of the Botanical Garden's greenhouses: the painter excelled in the still-life genre, combining fruit, flowers and animals in skilful compositions. After living at 16 rue du Petit-Potet in the 1860s, he later moved to 18 rue du Chaignot, where he lived until his death on April 15, 1865.
The Musée des beaux-arts de Dijon holds seven paintings by this little-known Dijon artist (portraits, still lifes, landscape), as well as one drawing (head study).

Ref: GRAMTOEVRM