Galerie Artwins
About us
Specializing in Symbolist and Nabi paintings, the Artwins gallery, founded by Caroline Thieffry, offers works carefully selected for their visual and historical qualities.
Located at 16 rue de la Grange Batelière in Paris, alongside the Cloître de l'Art, the gallery's intention, in addition to presenting the greats of these movements, is also to allow certain forgotten artists to regain their prestige. The French, Belgian, Swiss, and Austrian schools are widely represented.
A member of the Syndicat des Négociants en Art (SNA) and the Syndicat de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne (SLAM), the gallery has had the honor of exhibiting at the Salon du Livre Rare et des Arts Graphiques twice: in 2023 at the Grand Palais Éphémère, and in 2024 at the Carreau du Temple. In December 2023, the gallery had the privilege of receiving the first 'Marcus Prize', created at the initiative of the SNCAO-GA. Presented by Stéphane Bern, it recognizes young dealers for their work promoting and preserving heritage.
Artwins was then honored to be selected to exhibit at FAB (Fine Arts / La Biennale) on the 'young talents' stand in November 2024, at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Since 2021, several works from our selection have been included in numerous private and public collections, including those of the Musée de l'Oise (MUDO) and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA).
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Georges de FEURE, La ferme blanche
Georges de Feure (Paris 1868-1943) The White Farm circa 1905 oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm The son of a Dutch architect, Georges de Feure was born in Paris in 1868. His career began as a newspaper illustrator. In 1900, the discovery of his interiors and decorative objects for the Art Nouveau Bing Pavilion at the World's Fair brought him international renown. Steeped in Symbolist thought, he embodied this movement. In 1903, a first retrospective was dedicated to him at Siegfried Bing; 155 paintings, watercolors, and lithographs were exhibited alongside a wide variety of decorative objects, including some fifty of De Feure's landscapes. He emerged as a talented landscape artist. The most surprising development in De Feure's art was undoubtedly his landscape painting. Although a work simply titled Landscape had been included in Georges de Feure's Watercolors nearly ten years earlier, and Walcheren Island had been exhibited at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1896, this was the first and most important presentation of such works, with over fifty of them dominating the exhibition. René Puaux even considered it to be the artist's "most recent revelation." From then on, the artist almost always chose to exhibit landscapes. Marked by the influence of Japanese art, De Feure, according to the critic René Puaux, "applied the marvelous Japanese technique to the European landscape and created a new style." Many of those listed in the catalog were views of Bois-le-Roi, but we can safely say that ours represents a Flemish landscape, so characteristically does it bear. It is also possible to compare it with a view of the same region, which Puaux had reproduced in The Works of Georges de Feure in 1903.
Henri GUINIER, La Nymphe Erato
Henri GUINIER (Paris 1867-1927 Neuilly-sur-Seine) The Nymph Erato 1896 oil on canvas 84 x 65 cm; 106 x 86 cm Henri Guinier entered the École des Arts et Métiers in Châlons-sur-Marne on his father's advice and graduated as an engineer in 1886. Passionate about painting, he then trained alongside Jules Lefebvre and Benjamin-Constant. His success was dazzling. He won the Prix de Rome in 1893, and was subsequently awarded medals in 1896, 1898, and again in 1900, where he received a silver medal at the Universal Exhibition. In 1907, he was awarded the Henner Prize. A founding member of the Salon d'Automne, he exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français from the early 1890s until his death. He discovered Brittany in 1902 during a stay in Bréhat, following the advice of his friend Fernand Le Gout-Gérard, who had praised the beauty of Concarneau. Unlike artists such as Rivière or Guérin, who focused more on landscapes or picturesque Breton scenes, Guinier became a portraitist and depicted Brittany through the human figure. The Cornouaille region of Finistère, Le-Faouët, and the Côtes-d'Armor also inspired allegorical subjects. Breton legends rub shoulders with mythological influences, as evidenced by the painting before you. Erato, one of the nine muses, patron saint of lyrical and erotic poetry, is presented to us in the cool, soothing setting of a dense forest. Naked, she covers her shoulder with a purple stole and holds in her left hand her attribute: a lyre, given to her by Hermes. Painted in chiaroscuro, her face is magnified by the flamboyant red halo of her hair, crowned with a laurel wreath. In 1896, Henri Guinier painted this painting, of which he exhibited "L'étude de tête" (The Head Study) at the 1896 Salon under number 984. The painting "Autumn," similar to ours in its theme and composition, is now housed at the Musée d'Orsay.
Georges Jules Victor CLAIRIN, Portrait présumé de Sarah Bernhardt dans le rôle de Jeanne d'Arc
Georges Jules Victor CLAIRIN (Paris 1843 – 1919 Belle-Île-en-Mer) Presumed portrait of Sarah Bernhardt as Joan of Arc circa 1890 oil on canvas 91 x 50 cm; 114 x 74 cm signed 'G. Clairin' lower left on the back: bears two labels glued together and painted Georges Clairin and Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923): these two names, often presented side by side, are familiar to popular culture. The immensely talented tragedienne and the artist maintained an enduring close relationship throughout their lives. She quickly became the main subject of his works, depicting her sometimes in the countless roles she played, sometimes in more intimate poses. In 1888, Sarah Bernhardt played Joan of Arc in Jules Barbier's play, a role she took on a second time in 1909, in Émile Moreau's 'The Trial of Joan of Arc'. Several drawings by Georges Clairin depicting her as such have survived. The artist seems to have chosen a personal interpretation of the actress's costume, as can be seen on the drawing held at the Musée d'Orsay (RF MO AG 2014 3 11). He made several studies of her, sometimes in armor, sometimes in a costume very similar to ours. In this drawing, as in our painting, Sarah Bernhardt is depicted standing, wearing a heavy dress, likely velvet. Her left hand is placed on her hip, while with the other, she proudly holds a banner fluttering in the wind, adorned with fleurs-de-lis. In our painting, the pose is simply reversed. Holding a banner in her left hand, the actress is depicted here as a determined warrior, ready to lead her troops and save her country. Everything suggests that the work was presented at the French Exhibition in Moscow in 1891, as indicated by the information still visible on the back of the frame, on the carrier's label.
Frantz CHARLET, Quayside in Ghent
Frantz Charlet (Brussels 1862 - 1928 Paris) Quayside in Ghent circa 1885 charcoal on paper 45 x 54.5 cm signed 'F. Charlet' lower left Frantz Charlet first studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels under Jean-François Portaels. In Paris, his mentors were Jules Lefebvre, Carolus-Duran, and Jean-Léon Gérôme. A member of the Essor group, he became, alongside James Ensor and Théo Van Rysselberghe, one of the founders of the famous Brussels avant-garde group, Les Vingt. In 1885, he traveled through Belgium and Holland alongside James Whistler. Already captivated by the Divisionism of Seurat and Signac, whom he would later associate with, this trip marked a turning point in the evolution of his style, to which he brought a freer touch and lighter colors. It is likely that our drawing was created during the latter. In Paris, the artist exhibited at Georges Petit's, as well as at the various Salons of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, from which he received a prize and then a medal in 1885. Considered one of the most important painters of the New Belgian School, several museum institutions in that country (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp) hold some of his works. This drawing depicts a canal in Ghent, lined with buildings and crossed by a bridge. Through a tight mesh of hatching, Charlet creates a diffuse atmosphere where water, architecture, and human silhouettes blend into a common vibration. The luminous sensitivity of the whole evokes in certain aspects the atmospheric research of Henri Le Sidaner.