Al Willette (1857-1926), Sleeping Little Girl And Kitten, Original Pencil Drawing, Signed

Adolphe-Léon Willette (1857-1926) was a painter, illustrator, poster artist, lithographer and caricaturist, was a student of Alexandre Cabanel but quickly rejected any form of academicism. An emblematic figure of the Montmartre bohemian scene, much more of a draftsman than a painter, he very quickly abandoned painting in favor of drawing.
His graphic work is considerable and extremely diverse. Moving with ease from advertising commissions to very personal caricatures, from poetry to irony, demonstrating a constant social commitment, witness to the transformations of his time, he collaborated with many newspapers such as the Courrier français and especially L'Assiette au beurre.
"Willette's countless humorous drawings will undoubtedly remain his greatest claim to fame. They charmed a whole generation with their lively grace, their satirical but unbitter gaiety (…)” Léon Deshairs told us about him in 1926.

The Louis-Senlecq Museum of Art and History in L'Isle-Adam devoted a retrospective to him from June to September 2014, accompanied by a catalogue.

This charming and moving drawing represents the artist's own daughter asleep with a kitten.
A moment of intimacy and sweetness brilliantly captured by the artist in a few pencil strokes.
Signed bottom right in pencil: A.WILLETTE

This is probably the artist's third ans last daughter. She, named Anne, was born on October 21, 1917 at the painter's home.
We offer with this drawing, the engraved birth announcement of Anne that Willette drew.