Paul Biva
Paul Biva (Montmartre 19 September 1851 – 13 June 1900, Avon, Seine-et-Marne) was a French painter. His paintings, both Realist, Naturalist in effect, principally represented intricate landscape paintings or elaborate flower settings, much as the work of his older brother, the artist Henri Biva (1848–1929). Paul Biva was a distinguished member of National Horticultural Society of France from 1898 until his untimely death two years later.

Biography
Biva Paul was raised in a family originally from Alsace and Grisons. His father, Charles Biva (1821 Mulhouse – 1884 Paris) was a graphic designer and entrepreneur. In 1845 he opened a wallpaper factory in Montmartre. Very young, the two brothers, Paul and Henri Biva, learned to draft designs for the family business. Biva's delicacy and sureness of line features, colors and compositions of bouquets and still lifes comes in part from this particular training—also in the artistic context of Montmartre at the time.

In addition to the burden of work for the family business, Paul Biva enlisted in the Garde Nationale for compulsory military service during a difficult political and social period: the War of 1870 just ended, initiating the insurgency period of the City of Paris.

After the Salon of 1878, Paul Biva almost continuously exhibited to Salon des artistes français and other salons in Paris and Province until his untimely death in 1900.

The Baron Alphonse James de Rothschild purchased Chrysanthèmes, exhibited by Paul Biva at the Salon of 1893 and donated to the Musée de Saint-Malo.

Paul Biva lived at 128, rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière, and from 1897 at 12, rue d'Hauteville, according to the catalogue of 1912 Salon de la Société des artistes français.

Œuvre
His artistic legacy mixes the baroque tradition of Dutch still lifes, the simplicity of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699–1779), rediscovered at the time by the artistic community, and the energy of painters Realist painting after the biennial Salon of 1850. Thereafter, Paul Biva became sensitive to Impressionist movement of the 1870s.

The influence of the artistic environment in Montmartre also played a vital role, as expressed by André Roussard:

From Romanticism of the 1830s to Surrealism of the 1820s, we can state that Montmartre was at the origin, or at least involved in the creative period of the various successive movements. And especially, from 1850 to 1914, assembled here was an ensemble of painters and artists, poets, writers and musicians unparalleled in history, who revolutionized the arts and particularly the Fine arts. They lived in an artistic atmosphere and intellectual ferment which undoubtedly will never exist again with such intensity.

From Biva's first exhibition at the Salon des artistes français of 1878 until his death, the works of Paul Biva had been recognized and appreciated by the public and critics, as evidenced by articles commenting on the numerous exhibitions in which he participated.

Whereas his brother Henri Biva focused primarily on landscapes representing the western suburbs of Paris in the plein-air tradition, Paul Biva's favorite subjects were flowers, especially roses and peonies in full bloom. He paid great attention to the subtly nuanced variations of direct and reflected light on flower petals, while using vivid contrasts to highlight the expressive colors of his subject matter.

M. Paul Biva, landscape artist with a particular preference for flowers, was in the genre one of the most skilled and brightest artists of our time; his colorations are always, without ever exceeding the threshold of the natural world, vivid and explosive [éclatantes], and his motifs harmoniously composed [...] many landscapes of always fresh tonality, flowers and fruits, are highly acclaimed and sought after by collectors. (Bulletin des Sociétés artistiques de l’est, 1900)

Aside from his paintings, the illustrative skills of Paul Biva are revealed in his drawings that he realized for the illustrated catalogs of the Salon des artistes français between 1878 and 1901.

The Biva family

The literature in the press often confuses the two brothers, Paul's work is sometimes likened to that of Henri Biva, the elder who lived 30 years longer, and whose production was therefore much more abundant. The "Causerie" of Jacques Mauprat, published in Le Progrès Illustré (18 February 1894) mentions 'the flowers of both Biva's' exhibited at the Salon Lyonnais, and in 1993, Élisabeth Hardouin-Fugier and Étienne Grafe, in their book titled Les Peintres de Fleurs en France, de Redouté à Redon repeatedly mention "Biva", without specifying a first name to distinguishing between the two, even though several of their paintings are discussed and reproduced in the ouvrage.

If at first, from 1873, the young Paul Biva was influenced by the zeitgeist for genre scenes and landscapes—electing to paint landscapes that evoke those of Jean-Baptiste Corot—he subsequently explored other paths and other subjects. His flowers became more expressive, vigorous yet delicate and full of freshness, while Henri Biva's landscapes offered an intimate glimpse of a specific locale, characterized by intricate strokes and a pure palette bathed with warm natural light. Both Bivas devoted great attention to light effects.

Paul Biva's wife, Julienne Jouatte, niece of the painter Alphonse Jouatte (1827-1892), exhibited a still-life with fruit (Nature morte aux fruits) at the Salon in 188 Their daughter, Jeanne Biva, a student of Victor Marec and Paul Biva, was in one of the first coeducational classes at École des beaux-arts de Paris in 1897. where she studied under William Bouguereau. She exhibited pastels at the Salon des artistes français in 1908 (Boules de neige), 1910 (Boules de neige et muguet), 1912 (Renoncules) and 1913 (Anémones).

Their granddaughter, Huguette Graux-Berthoux (1917–2003) studied at l'Ecole de dessin of Suzanne and Gigi Coutant, then at the École des beaux-arts de Paris, and exhibited at the Salon des artistes français and in several other Salons in Paris and Province.

The son of Henri Biva, Lucien Biva (1878-1965), also a painter, emigrated to the United States in 1919 where he continued to paint and work as an ornamental designer for textile fabrics and similar articles of manufacture, patenting over 80 designs between 1920 and 1950. He became an American citizen in 1928.

Charles Biva, Henri Biva, Paul Biva, Julienne Jouatte, Lucien Biva and Huguette Berthoux-Graux are mentioned in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists.

Gallery

Public collections
 Le matin à Villeneuve l’Étang, before 1873, Musée des beaux-arts de Troyes
 Roses, 1889, Musée Gétraud, Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, Charente
 Corbeille de Pivoines, before 1892, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint-Brieuc
 Les Roses, Salon de 1896, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon
 Les Pavots, Salon des artistes français, 1898, Musée des beaux-arts et d'archéologie Joseph-Déchelette, Roanne
 Pivoines, Mairie d’Isdes, Loiret
Works by Paul Biva are also conserved at Château de Dieppe, Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen and at Musée des beaux-arts de Tourcoing.

Salons

Salon des artistes français

 1878, Le matin à Villeneuve l’Étang
 1879, Dans le parc, L’Étang de Villeneuve l’Étang, Anémones (gouache)
 1880, Pensées 
 1881, Fruits, Provisions 
 1883, Fleurs et fruits
 1884, Dans le parc de Villeneuve l’Étang, le matin 
 1889, Roses
 1890, Pivoines, Dans la vallée de Brunoy
 1891, Panier de roses
 1892, Pivoines
 1893, Roses, Pavots
 1894, Porte fleurie, Fleurs de printemps
 1895, Pavots
 1896, Roses, Pavots
 1897, Fleurs de printemps, Pavots
 1898, Roses trémières, Pavots
 1899, Fleurs de Printemps, Pavots
 1900, Floraison d’un matin 
 1901, Pavots au clair de lune

Bibliography
 Le Temps (Paris. 1861). Bibliothèque nationale de France,  ISSN
 Lyon horticole, Volumes 5-6, Association horticole lyonnaise., 1883
 Chronique de l'art, Librairie de l'art, 1883
 Lyon-revue, Volume 6, 1884, Lyon (France), 1884
 Catalogue illustré du Salon (Société des artistes français), 1884
 L'Artiste, Volume 1, Aux bureaux de L'Artiste., 1890
 Courrier de l'art, Volume 10, Eugène Véron, Paul Leroi, Librairie de l'art, 1890
 Revue des Pyrénées, Volume 3, Université de Toulouse. Conseil de l'université, Association Pyrénéenne, Toulouse, Union des sociétés savantes du Midi, 1891
 L'Art: revue hebdomadaire illustrée, 1894 
 L'art: revue mensuelle illustrée, Volume 1, Librairie de l'Art, 1894
 Revue de l'art français ancien et moderne, Volume 11, Société de l'histoire de l'art français Paris, 1894
 La Revue du siècle, littéraire, artistique & scientifique, Volume 10, 1896
 La Revue du siècle, Bureau de la revue, 1896
 Beaux-arts: revue d'information artistique, La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts, 1897
 Revue du Nivernais, Volumes 1-2, Beaumont-la-Ferriere, 1897
 Salon de 1898, Société des artistes français. Salon, Société nationale des beaux-arts (France). Salon, Goupil & Cie
 La Quinzaine, 1898, Lyon Public Library
 Bulletin artistique de l'Est: Volumes 5 à 6, 1899-1900
 Jardins de France, Société nationale d'horticulture de France, 1900
 Actes de l'Académie nationale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Bordeaux, Hotel des sociétés savantes, 1901
 Actes, Académie nationale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Bordeaux, 1901
 Le salon, dix ans de peinture, Gustave Haller, C. Lévy, 1902
 Journal des débats politiques et littéraires, 1814-1944, 
 Maîtres et petits Maîtres du XIXe siècle, Galerie René Drouin, Le Chemin en campagne, Paris, October 1942
 Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Vol. 2, p. 356 
 Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier, Etienne Grafe, Peintres de Fleurs en France, de Redouté à Redon, Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 1993, pp. 177, 199, 240, 248, 304, 315, 349 
 Lydia Harambourg, Dictionnaire des peintres paysagistes français du XIX° siècle, Ides et Calendes, 1985, p. 60
 Jean Yves Ribault, Mécènes et collectionneurs, Volume 1, Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, Éditions du CTHS, 1999,

References

External links
 Sotheby's, Old Master and 19th Century European Art, 31 Jan. 2009, Paul Biva, Still Life with Flowers, Peaches and Grapes

1851 births
1900 deaths
Painters from Paris
French landscape painters
Landscape artists
French still life painters
Flower artists
Post-Impressionist artists
Impressionist artists
Modern painters
Realist artists
19th-century French painters
French male painters
People of Montmartre
19th-century French male artists