Children’s Snack – Gaston Marquet (1848–1923)

French School – Oil on canvas signed lower right
Gaston Marquet, painter of portraits and genre scenes
Gaston Charles Marquet, born in Paris in 1848 and died in the same city in 1923, entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1868. He studied notably under Émile Bin, William Bouguereau, Gaston Boulanger, and Tony Robert-Fleury. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1875, and subsequently presented his works there regularly until the beginning of the 20th century.
A painter of portraits, genre scenes, and landscapes, Marquet was particularly interested in depicting childhood. Several works known or mentioned in the catalogues and press of his time bear witness to this: La toilette de l'enfant in 1880, En Normandie, ronde d'enfants exhibited in 1884, and a Ronde d'enfants au Printemps recorded in 1898.

Five children, five little personalities
This is precisely the charm of this painting: Gaston Marquet does not present five children neatly lined up for the occasion. Seated side by side on a simple bench, they instead form a small society in which each already seems to possess a personality, an occupation, and almost a story of their own.
On the left, a little girl wearing a bonnet brings a slice of bread and jam to her mouth, which she seems to be devouring greedily while casting an amused glance. Her neighbor in a blue dress, more composed, also holds her snack, an apple, in her hands. In the center, a little girl dressed in brown looks directly at the viewer, her hands neatly placed around her snack. Beside her, the only boy in the little group turns to look at his companions while rummaging through a basket, while the last little girl, with a slice of bread resting on her pink dress, appears more timid or lost in thought, with one finger raised to her mouth.
One detail deserves particular attention: the basket held by the young boy very clearly bears the initials “GM.” It seems difficult to interpret this as a second signature by the painter, since Gaston Marquet also signed the canvas normally at the lower right. Are these simply the initials of the owner of the basket, or should we recognize a discreet personal reference by the artist? Gaston Marquet himself was the father of two boys, including Pierre Édouard Gaston, born in 1881. If this were the case, we could date the scene to shortly before 1890. Naturally, nothing allows us to identify this little boy as one of the painter’s sons, but this detail adds an amusing question to this childhood scene.
These very different attitudes give the composition its remarkable spontaneity. There is nothing truly solemn here: Marquet observes the children with tenderness but without idealizing them. The faces are individualized, the gestures natural, the clothing simply rendered, and the painter captures with great accuracy that mixture of seriousness, greediness, curiosity, and distraction characteristic of childhood.
The bench forms a long horizontal line that brings the five schoolchildren together, while the colors of their clothes — blue, brown, black, and pink — give rhythm to the composition. Behind them, the vegetation and a few architectural elements are treated much more freely. This deliberately sketch-like background gives the children full presence and contributes to the impression of a scene captured from life.
A childhood scene full of freshness,
in which each of the five young models seems to tell their own story.
The frame – dimensions and condition
The painting is presented in a superb and important antique frame in giltwood and gilt stucco, particularly richly decorated. Its broad molding is composed of several successive registers: twisted ornament, laurel friezes, acanthus friezes, a row of beads, and broad gilt profiles accompany the canvas without ever overwhelming it.
This frame, whose beautiful old gilding has retained its nuances and depth, fully contributes to the decorative character of the ensemble. It constitutes in itself a remarkable setting for this scene of children.
Original canvas and stretcher. Painting in perfect condition. Frame in very good condition.
Dimensions: stretcher 46.5 × 38.5 cm – Frame 77 × 69 cm – Width 15 cm and depth 11 cm.