Simon SAINT-JEAN (1808–1860), A Forgotten Rose

Oil on canvas. 23.5 x 31.5 cm. Signed lower left. With frame.

The painting A Forgotten Rose by Simon Saint-Jean depicts a pale, almost white rose lying on the ground, accompanied by a bud and bright green leaves. The slightly wilted flower is rendered with remarkable delicacy: one can discern the velvety texture of the petals, soft pink hues, and droplets of water on the leaves, all testament to the artist's meticulous attention to detail. The neutral, blurred brown background enhances the flower, which stands isolated and luminous at the center of the composition.

A master of floral painting in the Lyon school, Saint-Jean excels here in capturing both naturalism and fragility. This "forgotten" rose evokes the fleeting nature of beauty and the passage of time—key themes in the still life tradition. The closed bud next to the full bloom hints at the cycle of life. The soft light brushing the petals heightens the sense of melancholy and poetry. Through its simple composition and precise realism, the work invites quiet contemplation of nature and reflection on the ephemeral.

After training under Augustin Thierriat and Pierre Revoil at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, Simon Saint-Jean entered François Lepage’s silk workshop, where he specialized in painting flowers and fruit. By 1826, he was already working as a textile designer. He exhibited for the first time in Lyon in 1828. Seeking to free himself from the constraints of the silk industry, he debuted at the Paris Salon in 1834 with two paintings of fruit and flowers, one of which—Flowers Falling from a Hat Hanging on an Oak Branch—won a third-class medal.

Returning to Lyon, he opened a studio on Quai de Retz, where he trained young designers while continuing to exhibit his work in both the Lyon and Paris Salons. His ambition was to rival the Dutch flower painters of the 17th and 18th centuries. In Paris, he became acquainted with Baron de Corvisart and Count Anatole de Montesquiou, an art lover whose wife dabbled in flower painting. Théophile Gautier took notice of his work at the 1842 Salon.

Saint-Jean achieved great success at the 1843 Salon with his Garland of Flowers Hanging Around a Gothic Niche of the Virgin Mary, which was purchased by the State for the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. His reputation soon spread across Europe, from Belgium to Russia, attracting a clientele that included the highest nobility. Despite the demand for his paintings among private collectors, no acquisition was made for the Musée du Luxembourg until 1851 (The Holy Water Stoup: Our Lady of the Roses, Louvre collection, on loan to the Château de Compiègne). The painter received three further commissions from the State: Bouquet in a Grotto (1852, Louvre collection); Roses in a Holy Water Font, purchased in 1853 by the superintendent of fine arts, Count de Nieuwerkerke, for Empress Eugénie and lost in the Tuileries fire of 1871; and Flowers in Ruins (1854, on loan to the Château de Fontainebleau), exhibited at the 1855 Exposition Universelle along with eight other paintings. On that occasion, Saint-Jean was awarded a gold medal, which played a decisive role in his election to the Académie de Lyon the following year.

The City of Lyon commissioned a work from him for its City Hall only in 1857—a painting he took two years to complete, already in declining health by then.