Reading By The Fireplace, Lafon 1865

Édouard Lafon (active in the 19th century) “Reading in front of the fireplace”, 1865
Oil on panel, signed and dated lower left: Lafon 1865
Frame dimensions 41x35 cm Frame: rich gilded and carved wooden frame decorated with pearls, acanthus leaves and radiating canals.

In the cozy intimacy of a wealthy 18th-century interior, an elegant young woman dressed in a gold brocade dress is depicted from behind, absorbed in reading a letter. The refined and silent atmosphere is magnified by the meticulous precision of Édouard Lafon’s brush, who excels here in the art of genre scenes. Every detail contributes to this luxurious evocation: the inlaid piece of furniture on the left covered with a shawl, the flowered vase, the red marble fireplace with rocaille decoration, or the chiseled bronze fittings placed on the shelf. On the floor, a flowered rug and an abandoned envelope reinforce the narrative dimension and the intimacy of the scene.
The painter delivers here a fine example of interior painting in the French academic tradition of the 19th century, close in subject and style to the works of painters such as James Tissot or Charles Baugniet.
Édouard Lafon, although little documented in biographical sources, belongs to the vein of so-called “anecdotal history” painters, active under the Second Empire. These artists were fond of intimate or gallant scenes, treated with extreme technical finesse. The taste for Louis XV or Louis XVI interiors and the staging of a cultivated bourgeoisie