Pair of flower paintings Circa 1800 - Attributed to Antoine Berjon (Lyon 1754-1843)

Attributed to Antoine Berjon (Lyon 1754-1843)
Pair of flower paintings.
Oils on canvas
66.5 x 50cm
These two high quality paintings seem to be attributed to Antoine Berjon, a painter trained in Lyon, but who spent a long time in Paris between 1793 and 1810? following the siege of Lyon by the revolutionary armies during the time of terror. During this Parisian period of his career, he had direct contact with three Flemish and Dutch flower painters: the brothers Gérard and Cornelis Van Spaendonck and Jan Frans van Dael who were considered the best flower painters present in Paris at the end of the reign of Louis XVI until the Restoration. Compared to the works of these three painters, the composition of the two paintings is less dense with a more French taste, which is characteristic of Berjon's works at this time.
Berjon's Parisian period is poorly documented. To survive, he painted works of different genres, miniature, portraits, studies of flowers in watercolor or gouache, exhibited at the Salon for some of them or sold directly to amateurs or through merchants. These works are mostly unsigned.
One of the two paintings is close to the style of those of Spaendonck and Van Dael: a bushy bouquet with another still life of fruit on the table which serves as a support. The other is more airy and light with flowering branches painted on watercolor or gouach paper that date from the Parisian period.
The pair can be dated to around 1800.