Aimée Brune-pagès (1803-1866), The Prayer, 1841

Aimée Brune-Pagès (1803-1866), La Prière, 1841 Signed illegibly lower right and dated 1841. Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: Brune, La grand-mère HST 49 x 41 cm, some restorations. This painting appears unfinished. The old woman and the two young children are very accomplished, like the clasped hands and details such as the armrest of the armchair and the nails on the backrest treated very finely, or the flame coming out of the lamp on the table to the left. On the other hand, the background seems difficult to read, we perceive a young girl standing, her arms and head resting on the back of the armchair, in the same pose as a character in the painting The Condemnation of Anne Boleyn from 1832 acquired in 2023 by the Musée de Picardie in Amiens. A green canopy stands out at the top right, as well as a curtain of the same color, these details also being close to the painting cited previously. The blanket on the old woman's knees is similar to that which is under the young dying man in the artist's painting entitled The Vow or A Mother Imploring the Virgin for Her Sick Son from 1837, kept at the Troyes Museum. On the back, the canvas bears the mark A la Palette de Rubens, Rue de Seine present at this address between 1826 and 1843. Aimée Brune Pagès obtained her supplies from this canvas dealer, very close to her home (at 8 rue des Beaux Arts, which opens onto rue de Seine) as confirmed by the painting The Abduction (INV 7076) in the Louvre Museum which bears this same mark on the back.