Unflinchingly bold and sophisticated, The Emerald Necklace is a beautiful portrait in oil by the celebrated French painter Jean-Pierre Cassigneul. The artist's unforgettable works are characterized by a strong composition and dramatic color arrangements, and the present work is no exception. Cassigneul's full powers in the handling of color and paint are clearly on display, as well as his remarkable ability to create portraits of intense power and expression.
The artist presents his subject in a dazzling verdant garden scene, with pops of color adorning her dress and hair that add to the lush atmosphere. The work exemplifies Cassigneul's ability to compose a painting that balances the classical conceptions of beauty with a distinctly modern, urbane sophistication. Vibrant colors and striking brushwork lend the piece its contemporary feel, while his sleepy-eyed subject is a classic trope from art history. Together, they form a distinctive style that is uniquely Cassigneul. His work is reminiscent of Les Nabis, the early 20th-century French Post-Impressionist painters, in its avant-garde color palette and flat spatial compositions. 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 studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, holding his first one-man exhibition at the young age of 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.