Pauline Delacroix-Garnier
The two sisters, dated 1894.
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right
Coat of arms at top left
Dimensions: 130 x 97 cm
With frame: 151 x 117 cm
Price: €15,000
The artist delivers here a delightful portrait of siblings.
This is a double portrait with an unusual composition. Being both inside and outside, the two sisters are represented standing on the balcony, on the first floor of the family home.
The scene is full of sweetness and tenderness. The pastel and neutral tones of the young girls’ outfits are revived by the flamboyant colors of autumn invading the Virginia creeper running on the balcony gate, a reminder of the red hair of the older sister. The black of the wrought iron, echoing the black of the younger girl’s hair, brings contrast to the painting.
It is most likely a control panel.
A coat of arms in the upper left corner may give us some indication of the family’s origin.
Painter and watercolorist, Pauline Delacroix-Garnier has made a special place for herself among the painters who knew how to render with delicacy and feeling the charm of the joys of home and family.
She exhibited in the salons from 1880 until her death portraits and genre scenes as well as some landscapes and seascapes.
Younger sister of Jules-Arsène Garnier, who taught her watercolor, she married Henry-Eugène Delacroix in 1878, who introduced her to painting.
Pauline Garnier had her studio with her husband at no 22 rue de Douai in Paris.
In 1895, she received the grand prize at the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors, of which she became vice-president. In 1909, she obtained a third class medal at the Salon.
Museums :
– Gray, Baron-Martin Museum: The Gaude Eater, mealtime
– Lille, palais des beaux-arts : Portrait of Miss Andrée D
– Toulouse : Augustins museum.
Salons:
– Salon des artistes français :-1904 : Portrait of Mrs Hubbard ;-1909 : Summer morning, oil on canvas.
Bibliography:
– Benezit dictionary
– Gérald Schurr ” Dictionnaire des petits maitres de la peinture de 1820-1920 ” Edition de l’amateur
– André Roussard, Dictionnaire des peintres à Montmartre au XIXe et XXe siècle, Éd. Roussard Montmartre, Paris, 1999, p. 179.
– Collective, Catalogue des dessins français du XIXe siècle, collection du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille, 2004, [notice 639], p. 168.
– Collection. Biographical files Boutillier du Retail. Documentation on Pauline Delacroix-Garnier] (1897), Paris : E. Flammarion , 1897
