Watercolor Painting By Henri Duhem

Henri Duhem (1860-1941)Watercolor, grandmother in her armchair reading her newspaper (Gazette de France) in a Haussmannian interior, in good condition (some foxing). Signed lower left 41.5 cm x 31 cmDescendant of an old Flemish family, Henri Duhem was born in Douai on April 7, 18603. In 1887, he enrolled in Henri Harpignies' drawing class in Paris and, at the same time, became friends with the painter Émile Breton who introduced him to oil painting. It was at the home of the latter's niece, Virginie Demont-Breton, daughter of the painter Jules Breton, and herself a painter living in Wissant, that he met, in 1889, a young painter, Marie Sergeant (1871-1918), whom he married the following year. This was the era of the Wissant group (also known as the Wissant School): around the Demont-Breton family, every summer for several years, the Duhems, settled in their country house in Camiers, met up with a whole group of friends who came to paint, on location, the Boulogne countryside and the coastline of the Opal Coast. Among the most assiduous were Georges Maroniez, Francis Tattegrain, Fernand Stiévenart and Félix Planquette6.