Abel Faivre (1867-1945) Portrait Of A Child

Abel FAIVRE
(Lyon, 1867 – Nice, 1945)
Portrait of a child (the model's identification will be given to the buyer, out of discretion for descendants)
Pastel
H. 59.5 cm; W. 43 cm
Signed top right and dated 1914

Provenance: The model's family

Between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, Abel Faivre acquired a national reputation as an illustrator and poster artist. A regular contributor to magazines such as Le Rire, L'Assiette au beurre and Le Figaro illustré, he was among the founders of the Salon des Humoristes, of which he would become president. The propaganda posters he produced during the First World War completed his fame. But Abel Faivre was also a painter and occasionally a portraitist. And many of his paintings bear the imprint of the man he considered his inspiration and master: Auguste Renoir. Abel frequented Renoir's house at the Château des Brouillards (Girardon Alley in Paris) and followed him on his holidays to Essoyes (Champagne). The paintings he presented at the Salon des Artistes Français, under titles redolent of Impressionism (Young Woman with Cherries, Young Women in the Countryside, Woman with a Fan, etc.), reflected his mentor's influence so well that Forain nicknamed him "Renoir and the Grapes"! This is the case with our pastel, a virtuoso representation of a four-year-old boy, but whose joyful physiognomy and vermilion cheeks are reminiscent of certain faces of Renoir. (The clothes and hairstyles of little boys at that time were not much different from those of little girls.) In her Dictionary of Impressionism, Sophie Monneret noted how Abel Faivre's graceful and fresh paintings contrasted with "the withered nudities and vengeful images of his caricatures." Here is a fine example!
Louis XVI frame placed at the time of the work's creation.