"gerardin Marthe Antoine, Portrait Of An Elegant Woman In A Yacht Cap"

MARTHE ANTOINE GERARDIN (1880 Nancy – 1952 Amsterdam)
Portrait of an elegant woman in a yachting cap
Pencil drawing with color highlights.
Signed lower right and dated August 1, 1928, in Juan-les-Pins.
Dimensions: H. 15 cm, W. 10.5 cm.
Dimensions with frame: H. 31 cm, W. 21 cm.
Gilt wood frame with glass.

MARTHE ANTOINE GERARDIN
She was a French illustrator specializing in portraits of 20th-century personalities, often depicted in profile.
Trained at the Nancy Regional School of Fine Arts, she exhibited her first portraits in La Baule and then in Pau. Her works also began to be reproduced as illustrations in the press, such as the portrait of Agnès Souret, voted the most beautiful woman in France.

Building on this success, she moved to Paris in 1923, where she sketched the literary and artistic elite of Paris, including Colette, Tristan Bernard, and Cécile Sorel. Her drawings, reproduced in numerous newspapers and magazines, were also published as postcards. In 1929, Marthe Gérardin traveled to the Netherlands, where she settled permanently a few years later, portraying members of the royal family, European royalty, and political figures she met at the Peace Palace. During this period, the artist, nicknamed the globe-trotter of the pencil, traveled extensively, attending conferences, shows, theater backstage, and nightclubs for the opportunity to meet celebrities.
Her works are held in the National Library of France, the Historical Library of the City of Paris, and in Amsterdam and Texas.


Our drawing depicts a young brunette woman in profile, wearing a captain's cap with a peak. Sketched in pencil with highlights of color, the work is dated August 1, 1925 and located in Juan-les-Pins. It includes the inscription Yacht Enbrun as well as a small red flag marked with the letter Z.