Elisabeth Dujarric De La Rivière (1930–2005) *the Lotion* (from The *petit Lever* Series)

Elisabeth DUJARRIC de LA RIVIÈRE
(Jouy-en-Josas 1930 – Excideuil 2005)
The Lotion (Part of the Petit lever series)
Oil on canvas
H. 33 cm; W. 46 cm

Provenance: The artist’s studio collection

Born in the heart of the Bièvre Valley, a few kilometers from Versailles, Elisabeth Dujarric nevertheless came from two prominent families whose origins lay elsewhere. She is the daughter of Marcelle Friedmann, whose parents maintained ties to Germany, primarily in Berlin, where Adolphe Friedmann was a prominent businessman. On her father’s side, the Dujarric de la Rivière family had been settled in the Périgord region for several centuries, and their presence can be traced to Agonac and Trélissac in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The family settled in Saint Sulpice d’Excideuil, in the northeastern part of the department, at the famous Château de la Rivière, from which they took their name. Scholars, doctors, scientists, and artists—the members of this family would bring further distinction to the Périgord. Elisabeth’s father, a distinguished researcher, became a member of the Academy of Medicine in part due to his discoveries regarding the Spanish flu. In fact, the hospital in Périgueux still bears his name today.

In this secluded Périgord estate in the heart of the countryside, Elisabeth Dujarric would set up a studio where she would work during the summer months, as she lived in Paris to escape the harsh winters. In the capital, she was a fervent patron of the artists’ community known as “La Ruche,” well known to lovers of modern art because it allowed young artists without means to create their works there—artists such as Modigliani, Soutine, Léger, Laurencin, Zatkine, Dorignac, and even Chagall. After studying art history at the Sorbonne and attending the Académie Julian and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Elisabeth Dujarric received the 1957 Salon de la Jeune Peinture award at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. This award marked her early creative period, during which she developed a style characterized by textural richness, fragmented perspectives, and altered hues, focusing primarily on portraits and still lifes. In the 1960s, she changed her style, as evidenced by exhibitions in Parisian galleries of the time, where the artist depicted everyday subjects in light hues with atypical framing and compositions. 

This small-format work is part of the extensive series titled “Le petit lever,” created over several decades, in which the subjects almost all explore the intimacy of the morning. Naked bodies, showers, ablutions, etc. Here, it is a woman, bare-chested, seen from an angle and head-on in the mirror. She is applying lotion to her cheeks.

Framed in a black shadow box.