Berthe Mouchel (1864-1951) - The Newspaper Reader

Oil on canvas117 x 91 cm / 139 x 110 cm with magnificent period frameBerthe Mouchel, born in Elbeuf in 1864 and died in Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer in 1951, was a French painter whose career developed between teaching, social commitment and pictorial research. Trained at the Académie des Beaux-arts des Champs-Élysées and the Académie Julian, she had to circumvent the restrictions imposed on women wishing to access the Beaux-Arts. Professor of drawing at the Société industrielle d'Elbeuf, she trained many students, including the painter René Olivier. In the years 1890-1910, her work testifies to a profound social sensitivity: she painted the working life of her hometown, the suffering of industrial work and poverty, in a naturalist style nourished by her academic training and a certain impressionist heritage. During the First World War, she worked with the wounded and turned her painting towards more peaceful themes, such as flowers and landscapes. Later affected by family tragedies, she devoted herself to sacred art: frescoes, mosaics, and church decorations in Normandy and Alsace. From the 1920s onward, she often stayed in Brittany, where she settled permanently, painting seascapes that she exhibited regularly. A member of the French Artists Association (Asociétaire des Artistes Français) from 1888, she participated in the Paris Salon until 1931 and received several distinctions. Retiring at the end of her life to a religious congregation, Berthe Mouchel left the image of a discreet but deeply committed artist, at the crossroads of faith, humanism, and social realism.