Paul Le Riche 

A French painter active between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Pierre Leriche — sometimes spelled Le Riche — established himself as a distinguished painter of floral still lifes, firmly rooted in the great French tradition inherited from the Age of Enlightenment.

His compositions display a perfect command of drawing, light, and color. The bouquets, often arranged on a stone ledgeor in an ornate metal vase, are built with structural clarity and balanced harmony. Leriche paid particular attention to texture: the velvety softness of petals, the translucence of glass, and the sheen of foliage reveal both keen observation and meticulous execution. His luminous palette — composed of warm tones and subtle harmonies — lends his works a refined elegance imbued with restraint.

His style, akin to that of the flower painters active under Louis XVI and the Empire, recalls the delicacy of Van Spaendonck and Jan Frans van Dael, while asserting a distinct personality through a freer touch and a refined sensitivity to light. The clarity of his compositions and the simplicity of his settings reflect an aesthetic already attuned to the emerging neoclassical taste.

Leriche’s work stands as a testament to the enduring sophistication of late 18th-century French still-life painting — poised between tradition and modern sensibility.