Michel Henry <Orange in Compote> Oil painting No. 10 OV

Produced in 2014

This is a painting commissioned by the artist Michel Henry for our company (Galerie Adeka). 

Michel Henry is a painter who mainly paints flowers, and together with Buffet and Brasilier, he is one of the leading painters in the 20th century French art world. His paintings give off a sense of happiness, so he is called the painter of happiness in France, and the king of poppies in America, because he paints many poppies. His transparent colors are likened to jewels. Red is said to be the color of ruby, blue is the color of sawaire, green is the color of emerald, and deep brown is the color of topaz. Michel Henry's paintings are collected by the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Swedish royal family, the Principality of Monaco, the Saudi Arabian royal family, and others. Galerie Adeka has been the sole distributor of Michel Henry in Japan since 1995, planning Michel Henry exhibitions in famous department stores and galleries throughout Japan, producing original prints signed by the artist himself, selling painting prints, and managing copyrights.

Work Description

Michel Henry painted two pairs of paintings on oval canvases in 2014. The pair is a Parisian-like, fashionable and delicate piece, Coquelicot in Paris, and Oranges in Compote. In contrast to Coquelicot in Paris, Oranges in Compote has a wild charm. It contrasts Parisian elegance with the fertility of the countryside. The mimosa twigs and oranges are left with rough touches. Without shading, the oranges and mimosas are given a three-dimensional feel only through the relationship between the colors. This is a technique used by Cezanne. Cezanne painted while assessing the simultaneous relationship between colors (technically known as color value, or valeur), so it would sometimes take several days to paint a single stroke. In literature, Flaubert had a similar tendency. He would ruminate for days on the composition of a single line of text. Michel Henry must have taken his time to create a work that is meticulously calculated, yet full of the charm of a sauvage that evokes the breath of the wilderness.

Michel Henry is a painter who mainly paints flowers, and is one of the leading painters of the 20th century French art world along with Buffet and Brasilier. He is called the painter of happiness in France because his paintings give off a sense of happiness, and the king of poppies in America because he paints many poppies. His transparent colors are likened to jewels. Red is said to be the color of ruby, blue is the color of sawaire, green is the color of emerald, and deep brown is the color of topaz. Michel Henry's paintings are collected by the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Swedish royal family, the Principality of Monaco, and the Saudi Arabian royal family, among others. Since 1995, Galerie Adeka has been the sole agent for Michel Henry in Japan, planning Michel Henry exhibitions at famous department stores and galleries throughout Japan, producing original prints signed by the artist himself, selling painting prints, and managing copyrights. The paintings sold by Galerie Adeka were purchased from Michel Henry. The original prints are produced by Galerie Adeka, the prints purchased from Michel Henry, and the prints purchased from a publisher in Paris; all are brand new.