Angèle Delasalle (1867-1939), Mirrored Feline, Charcoal And White Chalk Drawing, Signed

Important drawing of a tiger signed by Angèle Delasalle.

This pupil of Benjamin Constant, painter and engraver (although the print is always second in his artistic corpus), contemporary of Berthe Morisot, was named knight of the Legion of Honor in 1930. Just like the wild animals she portrayed so well, Angèle Delasalle did not lack consistency. Delasalle exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1894, she obtained the silver medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1900. From 1901, she collaborated with one of the most prestigious galleries of the time, the Galerie Georges Petit, joined the the same year the International Society of Painting and Sculpture will then be named associated with the National Society of Fine Arts in 1902. Its themes stand out from female presuppositions. His painted, drawn and engraved work invests reputedly masculine themes. This painter indeed excels in the genre of the nude, genre and portrait scenes having for decoration foundries, roofers, shadow workers but also in the painting of wild animals, tigers, tigresses, lion, panthers.
What crouches and gushes out. In this feline painting where she shines, the artist traces a singular path, an undeniably aesthetic path between Jouve and Rosa Bonheur. His portraits of wild animals already herald Art Deco and are in full harmony with its innovative architecture. This drawing that we present, completed and even sophisticated, of a racy elegance, was probably made at the very beginning of the 1900s; his series of felids taking place between 1904 and 1909. It could be a question of “resting tigress” listed in 1904 by Raymond Escholier in his article in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1912.
The spectator of this artistic safari, which preserves the well-being of the animal, discovers a feline, tiger or tigress, at rest, languid, perfectly modeled, powerful, with attentive expression, still on the lookout, the highlights of white chalk streaking the streaks of charcoal , to render both the motif, the brilliance and the majesty. In mirror, soberly removed in white chalk and black chalk, another feline in mirror inverted like another version of herself. Not its exact reflection in the surface of a water point but rather its dreamlike echo, the muscles tense, dangerous. Moral this very aesthetic fable, beware of the beast that sleeps.
Framed: 62 cm x 27.5cm
45.7 cm x 27.5 cm format of the drawing alone
Framing in burr walnut, small tear in the lower left corner on the margin of the drawing without impact.