Madeleine Lemaire (1845-1928).

Frame in gilded wood (usual wear), ecru mat, sea green with gold edging.
Frame dimensions: 32 x 41 cm. Dimensions of the watercolor: 18 x 27 cm.
Watercolor from the Armand Achille-Fould estate.
Madeleine Lemaire, born Jeanne Magdelaine Colle, is a French painter, illustrator and salonniere, born May 24, 1845 in Les Arcs and died in the 8th arrondissement of Paris on April 8, 1928.
She was one of the models who inspired the character of Madame Verdurin in In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.
She studied with Jeanne-Mathilde Herbelin (1820-1904) and Charles Chaplin. She specializes in genre scenes (sometimes in the style of the eighteenth century) and social, and especially in still lifes and flowers.
She began at the Salon of 1864, where she exhibited throughout her life, receiving prizes in 1877 and 1900. She also exhibited at the Salon of the Society of French watercolorists from 1879. Madeleine Lemaire also illustrates books , such as Les Plaisirs et les Jours by Marcel Proust, or L'Abbé Constantin by Ludovic Halévy, or the poems by Robert de Montesquiou.
In 1890, the National Society of Fine Arts was re-founded, more open to artistic freedom, by Ernest Meissonier with Auguste Rodin, Jules Dalou, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes… Madeleine Lemaire became one of the only two female members, with the painter Louise Catherine Breslau, out of 184 members. She is part of the delegation of French women artists presented at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, grouped together in the Woman's Building; she executes the official poster and the cover of the catalog.
In 1900, she was the teacher of the watercolorist Blanche Odin. Marie Laurencin is also one of her pupils.
Alexandre Dumas fils, of whom she was the teacher, said of her: “It is she who created the most roses after God. ».
Around thirty of his works - pastels, oils and watercolors - were exhibited in April-June 2010 at the Marmottan-Monet museum in Paris, as part of an exhibition devoted to women painters in the time of Marcel Proust.
The Dieppe museum as well as those of Mulhouse and Toulouse have some of his works, and the Louvre museum keeps the Valet de chambre watercolor bearing a letter and a Bouquet from the former Le Masle collection.