Antoine Vollon is an excellent painter who combined sensibility and technique to create works of the utmost delicacy without paying much heed to the changing fashions of the time, acting instead as a champion of a tradition without ruptures.

Regarded as an exceptional artist in France in his day, he earned many official distinctions and was a true star at the Paris Salons, in which he won medals in 1865, 1868 and 1869 and a first class medal at the 1878 World Expo. He was also appointed Officier de la Légion d’honneur and a member of the Académie des beaux-arts.

Vollon’s work is known for his thoroughness in capturing reality. His landscapes, rendered with quick agile brushwork, convey unbounded passion. His skies are either bright and sunny or clouded in stormy chiaroscuro, and the leaves of his trees flutter in the wind. Equally adept at painting seascapes, animals, figures and genre scenes, he undertook all his subject matters with supreme mastery, and the indelible charm of his work met with wide public acclaim.

As a painter of still lifes, Vollon was a faithful interpreter of reality, emulating the skill and precision of the old masters. Fresh fish trapped in the net, a quail’s feathers, an oyster with its pearl, the redness of a mysterious coral, the horns and reflection on an animal’s fur; the quality in the depiction of the glass of a bottle, of a kitchen utensil, a piece of armour, or the shine of copper, glass, porcelain or steel... they are all brought to life through the reflection of light. Any element served as the perfect excuse for him to display his virtuosity, and anything could be a pretext to take brush to canvas and create with consummate ease.