by karen de la gorce ASGFA
Oil on linen canvas
h: 81 w: 65 d: 2 (cms).
The artist’s wife, the artist’s daughter, the artist. This portrait is primarily a study of my daughter who’s an art student with a backdrop of a painting of Madame Machard, the wife of the 19th century French painter, Jules Marchard. My daughter and I visited our local art museum, the Arras Musée de Beaux Arts, and we discovered this painting. We were impressed by the delicate, but assured gaze of the model. We imagined her story as an artist’s wife and how very different her life must have been compared to mine as a female painter and my daughter as an art student. I tried to capture my daughter in an assured pose, displaying her tall stature and independence in contrast alongside the artist’s wife in her role of being decorative, reliant and adoring to her husband, the artist. The portrait started with pencil studies of my daughter from life, who I have painted many times before, and continued onto canvas with a detailed drawing, a simple grisaille and a limited colour palette. My aim was to be sympathetic to both models, with my daughter holding the ace of hearts playing card symbolizing how her life, her future, is her own compared to Madame Machard who seems almost fragile behind her, who we imagine her future is very much in the hands of her artist husband, the painter. This painting of Madame Marchard, painted in 1897, is currently on loan from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. My painting of Madame Marchard is a mere interpretation in contrast to my daughter’s portrait who I’ve captured her likeness as close as I possibly can.
£2800 (As exhibited.)
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