Henri-lucien Doucet. Portrait Of Lola De Ruiz.

Lucien Doucet studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in the studios of Jules Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger.  He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1880 and went to the Villa Medici. Some of his works attracted attention, such as his Agar in the Desert, presented at the 1884 Champs-Élysées Exhibition.

His body of work includes numerous portraits of contemporaries, sometimes in pastel, but more often in oil; among his portraits are those of Celestine Galli-Marié as Carmen (1884, Marseille Museum of Fine Arts), Princess Mathilde, and My Parents (1890, Lyon Museum of Fine Arts), as well as A Spanish Woman (Pontoise Museum), and that of Betty from the cabaret Le Chat Noir in 1889.  Lola de Ruiz (born around 1858 in New York or Philadelphia), painter and the wife of Lucien Doucet. They met in the studio of their mutual teacher, Jules Lefebvre, at the Académie Julian in Paris. Their relationship was publicized by the Gazette des Femmes in August 1880. After joining Lucien Doucet in Rome while he was a resident at the Villa Medicis, they married in a secret Catholic ceremony on February 13, 1881, followed by a civil ceremony in Rome on January 3, 1883. Their daughter, Agnès Doucet, was born in Rome in 1883 during their time at the Villa Medici.
I am deeply grateful to Lola de Ruiz's great-grandson who confirmed that the portrait is indeed of his great-grandmother.
Oil on canvas, relined and signed in pencil lower left (signature slightly faded). 19th century gilt wood and stucco frame.