Auguste-Michel NOBILLET (1850-1914). Riverbed on the outskirts of the village; Woman in a flower garden. Two oils, one on panel, the other on isorel, signed lower left. Height 41 cm ; Width : 32 cm ; Height. 35 cm; Width: 28 cm. Influenced by his Breton origins and his apprenticeship with painters Émile VERNIER and Paul VAYSON, Auguste NOBILLET was a member of the Société des Artistes Français (from 1884 to 1914), which organised the Salon in Paris every year. Over the course of his career, he distinguished himself through his landscapes, often populated by female walkers, and was particularly fond of lakes and rivers, where he worked with light and colour. His paintings reveal a strong interest in botany and flowers in particular. The collections of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, for example, hold two Mare aux Iris, one in pencil, the other in oil, painted in the 1890s. In 1896, La Dépêche de Brest commented in an article dedicated to the Breton artists at the Salon: "Mr Nobillet is the painter of flowers. He loves the enchantment of flowerbeds carpeted with multicoloured corollas, and he distributes light, fresh tones on his palette (...). It is difficult to handle a brush with more delicate skill than Mr Nobillet". In 1865, his father, a prosperous building contractor, acquired the Château de Trémigon, near Combourg. The grounds of this estate and the surrounding area, planted with tall trees and bordered by numerous ponds, inspired Nobillet to paint charming landscapes. In 1872, in Lisieux, he married Rose-Gabrielle de Labordette, the daughter of a Norman doctor. In 1902, L'Ouest Éclair dedicated a few laudatory lines to the artist: "Nobillet's flowers are the only ones at this Salon that betray all that their name implies in terms of grace, freshness and finesse. I can smell the aroma of these discreetly tinted bunches, whose languor spreads over a twilight silence (...). I would like to see a lot here, as Nobillet knows how to paint, flowers on shores, mauve moors and fields saturated with wild grass".