
Thomas Seaman
Specialist, Head of Sale
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Specialist, Head of Sale
Provenance
The artist.
By direct descent to the present owner.
Exhibited
Paris, Salon, 1885, no. 1105.
Literature
Catalogue illustré du Salon, 1885, p. 180 (line drawing).
Of Swiss heritage, Eugène Girardet initially learned engraving from his father, before entering the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; he later worked in the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme, who encouraged him to visit North Africa.
Girardet made frequent visits to Algeria, from 1874 onwards, where he encountered Étienne Dinet. His visits extended to Egypt and Palestine, producing many works depicting the lives of desert nomads. Upon his return to France, Girardet became a teacher at the Académie Julian. He became a founding member of the Société des Peintres Orientalistes, and was a regularly exhibitor at the Salon; he also had work on display at the Exposition Universelle of 1900.
A tender and unusual departure from the artist's usual subject matter, the present work depicts the wife of the painter, Maria (Nelly) Girardet (née Wickham), after the birth of their second daughter, Odette Marie, in 1884. Maria is resting next to Odette and her first daughter Nelly, who was born in 1882. Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1885, the work has remained with the artist's family since it was painted.