Pierre Grivolas (1823–1906) The Old Provençal Woman With The Open Register

A portrait of an elderly Provençal woman who could be the stewardess, the bookkeeper, or the headmistress of a 19th-century school.
Her expression is serious and grave, austere, as if she were about to make a reproach, all accentuated by the darkness of her clothing and the sober, unadorned setting of an office. Yet, a glimmer of hope—not everything is somber—as a beautiful radiance emanates from her gaunt features, the whiteness of her traditional headdress, and her open expression.
The emotion the artist sought to convey is successfully conveyed, and the message comes across.
A thousand and one questions arise about the personality and role of this cold-hearted figure, who—skillfully and masterfully portrayed by this friend of Delacroix and Ingres, director of the Beaux-Arts in Avignon—stands as the leading figure of this school, which boasted many prestigious students.
The work is presented in a beautiful gilded and carved frame measuring 59 cm by 72 cm, with the canvas itself measuring 44 cm by 57 cm.
In its original condition, with only a few normal cracks—which are to be expected in a work from this period—it is signed in the lower left corner.

Born in Avignon, on the rue des Trois-Colombes, on September 2, 1823, he displayed such talent that his parents enrolled him in the city's drawing classes. In 1843, he won first prize from the Calvet bequest, which allowed him to continue his studies in Paris. A student at the École des Beaux-Arts, he met and associated with Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, and Hippolyte Flandrin. In 1848, the Parisian riots forced him to return to Avignon, where he joined the Félibrige movement.

In 1894, he invited his brother, Antoine Grivolas (born in 1843), to leave the French Riviera and join him, settling first in the heart of Mont Ventoux, first at the "Bergerie du Rat" and then at the "Combe de Clare." The two painters led
the same life as the shepherds, sleeping on straw and eating
slices of bacon and dairy products. Having completed a series of sketches,
drawings, and canvases, they moved the following year to settle in Monieux, at the entrance to the Nesque Gorge.

"For another season, they went to the hamlet of Ventouret and
strove to reproduce the gray tones of the sun-scorched rock,
against which rise, in vibrant hues, the green of the beech trees, dominated by the
great blue expanse of the sky above these heights."
From this fraternal collaboration emerged works such as The Almond Trees of Verdolier, The Lavender Harvest, The Hamlet of La Gabelle, The Beech Trees of Ventouret, The Wax Rock, and The Valley of Monieux. He is considered, along with his younger brother, one of the major painters of Mont Ventoux.

He died in Avignon on February 5, 1906. A street in that city now bears his name.

His works are in the following public collections:

Allauch, Allauch Museum: Procession of First Communicants, oil on canvas.

Arles, Arles Museum:

Procession of the White Penitents, 1865, oil on canvas;

Portrait of Rose Bordas, 1858, 46 × 38 cm.

Avignon:

Calvet Museum:

Market in Place Pie, 1868, oil on canvas, 100 × 150 cm;

The Flagellants, 1867, oil on canvas, 175 × 208 cm.

Palais du Roure:

Madame de Séménov,

190 × 128 cm;
Father of Mr. Nicolas de Séménov,

71 × 58 cm;
Mother of Mr. Nicolas de Séménov,

70 × 58 cm;
Portrait of Pierre Sautel, 1898,

56 × 42 cm;
Self-Portrait, 40 × 30 cm.

Musée Louis Vouland:

Interior of a Spinning Mill, 1858,

93 × 73 cm;
Portrait of Madame Irma de Fontnouvelle, oil on canvas;

Portrait of Charles Thomas, oil on canvas.