Germain Paget (1817-1884) - Double Portrait Of Berthe Goudard And Her Sister

Germain Paget (1817-1884) - Double portrait of Berthe Goudard and her sister

Germain Paget (1817-1884) -Interior scene

This elegant oil on canvas is the work of Germain Paget (1817-1884), a Jura painter born in Morbier, renowned for the quality of his portraits and genre scenes.

The composition depicts Mme Berthe Goudard, standing, alongside her seated sister. The artist succeeds in finely capturing the complicity that unites the two young women, in a staging that is both sober and refined, characteristic of the bourgeois portrait of the XIXᵉ century.

The care given to the rendering of the composition is also evident in the way it is rendered.

The care taken in rendering the faces, the delicacy of the fabrics and the elegance of the attitudes testifies to Germain Paget's solid academic training. The ensemble exudes an atmosphere imbued with gentleness and distinction, offering a precious testimony to the cultivated provincial society of his time.

Born in Morbier in 1817, Germain Paget received his first artistic training in Dole with Jean Séraphin Désiré Besson before continuing his studies in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. There, he frequented the studios of Adolphe Brune, Jean Gigoux and then Thomas Couture.

Beginning in 1841, he exhibited regularly at the Salon de Paris, a key event in French artistic life. His talent was quickly noticed, and several of his works attracted the attention of official institutions.

At the time of the Second Empire, he was one of the most prominent artists in France.

Under the Second Empire, the renewed taste for the XVIIIᵉ century, encouraged by Empress Eugénie, inspired Germain Paget to create numerous compositions full of grace and freshness. His works, now preserved in several public collections and museums, notably in Dole and Morez, are particularly appreciated for their sensitivity and quality of execution.

This double portrait is a remarkable testament to the artist's skill and the refinement of French painting in the XIXᵉ century.