Oil On Panel - Att. To Eugène Girardet - Pensive Woman

Attributed to Eugène GIRARDET (Paris 1853 - 1907)Pensive Womanoil on panel26 x 35 cm; 55.5 x 45.5 cm (with frame)on the back: bears an inscription 'Eugène Girardet' / the stamp of the color merchant 'Félix Voisinot / color merchant (...) / paintings (...)/ Paris.' (active between 1876 and 1881).Born in Paris in 1853, Eugène Girardet came from a family of artists of Swiss origin. He joined the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). The latter encouraged him to travel to North Africa from 1874. From 1879, he began eight successive trips to Algeria, in the hinterland. He spent most of his time in Biskra, Bou Saâda and El Kantara. There he produced countless studies of scenes from nomadic life and desert views and became friends with Etienne Dinet. Between 1877 and 1907, he exhibited in France, notably at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts, the Salon of the Society of French Orientalist Painters, and the 1900 Universal Exhibition. Finally, he participated in the Colonial Exhibition in Marseille in 1906, a year before his death. Everything suggests that the sketch we are offering you was produced between 1876 and 1879. The artist then had the opportunity to discover North Africa during his first trip. He was back in Paris and his palette was already imbued with the colors of the Orient, unlike the subject, which remained more academic. A young woman, seated in profile, turns her face towards an interlocutor we can only imagine. The warm and shimmering colors blend with the vibrant touch of the background, mixed with blue and ochre. The viewer follows the rhythm of this muted scene where the action is just waiting to unfold. We can compare this work to the painting Les fileurs à Bou-Saâda (visible below), recently auctioned and in which we find the same style as well as very similar colors. (Majorelle et ses contemporains, Artcurial, Marrakech, December 30, 2019, lot n°66.) Many of the artist's works are held in public collections, notably at the Musée d'Orsay, the Zurich Museum and the Geneva Museum.