Bernard Buffet Painting Appraisal

Bernard Buffet Still Life with Flowers in a Vase, Oil on Canvas, 1950s

This is an oil on canvas painting by the renowned French Expressionist Bernard Buffet, dated by style and context to the 1950s. The composition features a hallmark Buffet still life: a vertical white vase with black linear detailing holding an arrangement of spiky, angular flowers against a muted, monochromatic gray background. The work exhibits the artist's signature 'miserabilist' style, characterized by stark, aggressive black outlines and a restricted palette of grays, whites, and pale yellows. The flowers are rendered with dry, sharp strokes, creating a sense of tension and melancholy typical of post-war European art. The painting is housed in an elaborate, heavy gold-gilded Louis XV-style rococo frame with ornate floral carvings and scrolls, which provides a stark contrast to the modern, minimalist aesthetic of the artwork itself. The canvas appears to maintain good tension within the frame, showing authentic aging and a subtle patina consistent with a mid-20th-century piece. Buffet's typical long, vertical signature and date are expected to be located in the upper portion of the canvas, though they are obscured by the low image resolution. The craftsmanship reflects Buffet's mastery of structural line work and his ability to evoke deep emotion through austere subject matter.