The meal , dated 1899

Oil on panel, signed and dated lower right 

Dimensions: 46 x 55 cm, with frame   69 x 78 cm

“Claude Firmin, the painter seizing interiors crossed by a reflection of the sun or purple with a forge fire” , in “Mémoires de l'Académie de Vaucluse”, 1919, p. 15 

Claude Firmin exhibits at the Parisian Salons. His paintings are noticed, some are acquired by the State. Interior scenes have the greatest success: he attaches importance to lighting and atmosphere, which he accurately reproduces.  

Here, he represents one of his favorite subjects. This interior scene brings a family together for lunch. The sons and the father are seated at the table, the mother is standing and pouring water into a dish. The soup, placed on the table, smokes on the plates, the light passes through the steam and fixes the silent atmosphere of the moment of the meal. The heads are pricked towards the plate.

The light, which enters the opulent interior against the light, cuts the silhouette of the protagonists. The interior is dressed according to the taste of the South of France: from family furniture, to the dining table and the sausages hanging from the ceiling, the painter recreates the typical interior with realism.  

Claude Firmin dit le Goy (the “lame man” in Provençal) is a painter from the south of France. He shares his studies and his life between Avignon and Paris, at 54 rue de Seine in the 6th arrondissement. In the capital, he attended the studio of Léon Bonnat, whom the master nicknamed "my best pupil".

Subsequently, he continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts in Avignon, where he was appointed teacher, then director of the school. The Avignon city hall keeps the frescoes commissioned by the town hall on its walls. Painter and teacher emeritus, he was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1937 and obtained numerous prizes, including the drawing prize of the Calvet Museum.