T he son of an haute-couture designer in 20th century Paris, the artist was early-on influenced by his fashionable environs. Offered his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Lucy Krohg in 1952 at the age of 17, Cassigneul continues to work well into the 21st century. The present work is a late-career example that displays a refinement of Cassigneul’s most notable motifs. The svelte, chic women and the presence of the pram evoke the cosmopolitan themes that imbue much of the artist’s oeuvre. He is well-known for his portraits of glamorous women with aloof expressions and brightly-colored florals. Here, this is combined with the also oft-featured jockey in a picturesque countryside landscape. The enmeshing of the two worlds emphasizes Cassigneul’s focus on figuration across categories.

Committed to figuration as the world around him tended towards abstraction, Cassigneul developed an avant-garde style that credits the French Nabis painters of the 20th century. Combining the colors and sensuous feeling of Kees van Dongen with the graphic sensibilities of Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard, Cassigneul also layers in the perspectival techniques of Japanese woodblock prints, creating a visual language that is stalwart in the face of artistic trends.