“the Model”, Very Large Oil On Canvas,a.f. Laurens, 1883

Very large oil on canvas (2.10m x 1.45m), representing a young woman leaning on a sculptor's easel, undoubtedly resting between two posing sessions. Naked, adorned with gold and silver jewelry, part of her body dressed in tulle hemmed with gold thread, she leans on a sculptor's easel on which is placed a sculpture undoubtedly representing Leda and the Swan? At his feet, a large antique amphora decorated, among other things, with a woman playing the lyre, and from which springs a bouquet of roses and gypsophila. An oriental carpet covers the floor. Beautiful impression of softness underlined by advanced aesthetics. Original canvas and stretcher, as well as frame. Signed lower left A.LAURENS, dated 1883. Albert FA LAURENS, painter born in Lyon in April 1864. French school. A student of Bonnat, he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français. cf. Bénézit, T.VI, p.479