A striking woman in white sits waterside in this entrancing oil painting by Jean-Pierre Cassigneul. A classic example of his aesthetic, the composition exemplifies the serenity and sophistication of Cassigneul’s work. Cassigneul is renowned for his dramatic portraits, and Fin de Journée brings together all of the motifs for which he is renowned: a fashionable lady, a sailboat and the sea. Together with a vibrant palette, they form a distinctive style that is uniquely Cassigneul.

Cassigneul stands among the most popular living French artists of the contemporary age, and his canvases reflect his own unique experiences of his time and place. Dominated by sleepy-eyed beauties, his compositions display his unique fusion of French haute couture with traditional portraiture. He takes his aesthetic inspiration from Les Nabis, the early 20th-century Post-Impressionist group that included artists such as Pierre Gauguin and Pierre Bonnard, particularly in his avant-garde color palette and flat spatial planes. Expressionist painter Kees van Dongen was another important influence on the young Cassigneul, whose portraits resemble van Dongen’s elongated, sharply contoured female forms.

Born in Paris in 1935, Cassigneul's grandfather was the founder of the ground-breaking French fashion house Jean Dessès. Raised among the glamor and excitement of the Parisian fashion world, the young Cassigneul observed models and dressmakers and runway shows from a very young age. His interest in art also manifested early, and he painted he first landscape at Deauville at the young age of 12. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, holding his first one-man exhibition at just 17. Since that first show, his work has been widely exhibited throughout the world, particularly in Western Europe, the United States, and Japan, where he enjoys an especially devoted following.