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Gifford, Robert Swain - Lazy Day on The Nile
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Abbema, Louise - Allee Fluerie
| Abbema, Louise - Allee Fluerie |
| Description: |
Louise Abbema
(French, 1858 - 1927)
Allee Fluerie
Signed & indistinctly inscribed bottom right
Louise Abbema
Oil on board
Sight: 8 x 5 1/8 in.
Framed: 16 x 13 in.
Louise Abbema was only eighteen years old when her portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, of whom she became the official portraitist and lifelong close friend, brought her immediate success and recognition. Thus, the long career of the promising pupil of Chapin, Henner and Carolus-Duran started with a bang and continued with widespread recognition until her death at the age of sixty-nine.
Abbema exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Franais until 1926 and, among other prestigious prizes, in 1906 was awarded the Cross of Chevalier de la Legion dHonneur for her many contributions as a painter, engraver, sculptress and writer (she collaborated with the Gazette des Beaux-Arts and LArt).
In all her watercolors, pastels, etchings, numerous portraits, decorative works of art and floral compositions, she sought to achieve a balance between the rigors of academic dictates and what was then thought of as the liberties taken by the Impressionists. This is most evident in her painting Dejeuner dans la serre (owned by the Museum of Pay, France), which evokes Frederic Bazille in the gravity and authority of its tones and Edouard Manet in the richness of its grays and the virility of its brush strokes.
Also worthy of special mention are the large decorative panels Abbema executed for the main Town Hall in Paris, as well as those for the Town Halls of the 7th, 10th and 20th Theater, the French National Horticultural Society, and the Palace of the Governor of Dakar in Senegal.
The artist is best remembered for her languidly charming, yet surprisingly strong, watercolors, and for painting such as The Seasons, April Morning, Among the Flowers, Winter, and for portraits such as those of Don Pedro-Emperor of Brazil, of Ferdinand de Lesseps, Charle Garnier, and Cauolus-Duran.
Pertinent Literature:
E. Bnzit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris, Vol. 1, pp.6-7
Fusco, Peter and H.W. Janson, The Romantics to Rodin, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980, exhibition catalogue. |
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