Alfred Arthur Brunel de NEUVILLE "3 kittens and a chick" painting oil on canvas

Alfred Arthur Brunel-Neuville (or Brunel de Neuville), born in Passy on December 8, 18521 and died in Sèvres on February 5, 19412, was a French genre painter of still lifes and animals, especially cats. He was a pupil of his father Léon Brunel. Having received fairly basic training from his father, he became famous between the ages of 20 and 30 as an animal artist of the Paris School, focusing on domestic cats and later still lifes, such as fruit and flowers. He exhibited his work at the Société des Artistes Français from 1879 and was elected a member in 1907. Throughout his life, De-Neuville worked hard to improve his skills, and his later paintings are more complex than his earlier works. Dogs and cats became popular as the subjects of a sentimentalist, realist genre at which de Neuville excelled. Although his style is overall realistic, some of the cat paintings have just a touch of impressionism in tone. Certainly, cats are not depicted as a natural subject in a strict realist manner. Many of his still lifes have a very French bucolic charm. De Neuville was very popular during his lifetime, but towards the end of his life his popularity fluctuated. Certainly, modern art lovers will abhor the sentimentality of the genre. De Neuville died in 1941 and is buried in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris. His works can be seen in museums in Béziers, Brest, Chà¢teau-Thierry and Louviers. Bibl. Dictionnaire des petits maà®tres de la peinture 1820-1920, tome 1, A à H, Les à‰ditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 1996, 557 p