Numa-François GILLET (Bordeaux, 1868 - Montigny-sur-Loing, 1940) Towards the ideal Oil on canvas (Original canvas) Signed 'NUMA GILLET' lower right (Small restorations) Towards the ideal, oil on canvas, signed, by F. Gillet 21.65 x 25.98 in. 55.0 x 66.0 cm Provenance: Gérard Lévy Collection ; Then by descent After training with Bouguereau at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris, where he was a pupil from 1894, François Numa-Gillet explored the art of ceramics and worked in Georges Delvaux's studio. A member of the artistic colony of Montigny-sur-Loing, where he set up his studio, he won a medal at the 1900 Universal Exhibition. The two paintings we are presenting (lots 53 and 55) bear witness to the essential role played by Symbolism in the artist's pictorial production, and in some ways reflect the influence that the work of Armand Point may have had on him. Numa-Gillet had in fact befriended the latter, and had for a time joined him in his cenacle at the Haute-Claire studio founded in 1896 in Bourron-Marlotte, not far from Fontainebleau. Numa-François GILLET (Bordeaux, 1868 - Montigny-sur-Loing, 1940) 55.0 x 66.0 cm After training with Bouguereau at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris, where he was a pupil from 1894, François Numa-Gillet explored the art of ceramics and worked in Georges Delvaux's studio. A member of the artistic colony of Montigny-sur-Loing, where he set up his studio, he won a medal at the 1900 Universal Exhibition. The two paintings we are presenting (lots 53 and 55) bear witness to the essential role played by Symbolism in the artist's pictorial production, and in some ways reflect the influence that the work of Armand Point may have had on him. Numa-Gillet had in fact befriended the latter, and had for a time joined him in his cenacle at the Haute-Claire studio founded in 1896 in Bourron-Marlotte, not far from Fontainebleau.