FERREYROLLES A.
 (Active circa 1880)

 Bread, Rochefort-Montagne cheese and pottery on a wooden table

 Oil on canvas
 Signed and dated lower right
 73 x 59 cm
 1881

 Little is known about this artist from Auvergne, who could be Antoine Ferreyrolles, born in 1842 in Murat-le Quaire, about thirty kilometers southwest of Clermont-Ferrand; his surname is also very widespread in this part of the Puy de Dôme. The Murol museum holds three of his paintings, local landscapes, and there is a Mise au tombeau, painted in 1880 for the decoration of the church of Rochefort-Montagne. There is also a Still life with game, dated 1886, and apparently in the same vein as our painting.
 This one is executed in a very realistic style, bordering on trompe-l'oeil, visibly inspired by artists from the beginning of the 17th century, such as the German Georg Flegel, the Dutch Floris Van Schooten or the Antwerp Clara Peeters.
 While we can appreciate the general balance of the composition, it is above all the execution of the cheese and the loaf of bread which impresses.