Molti Ritratti: Eleonora Duse

Eleonora Duse (1858-1924) was a famous Italian actress active during the four decades centered on 1900. Her esteem was on the order of that of Sarah Bernhardt. Duse's Wikipedia entry is here.

Like Bernhardt, she lived in the age of photography, yet her fame resulted in a number of portraits being made of her by important artists. Below are examples.

Gallery

Photo of Eleonora Duse

By Giovanni Boldini
As best I can tell from the Internet, this is a portrait of Duse by Boldini, though I could find only one source for this information.

By Vittorio Corcos
Corcos was a leading Italian portrait painter and contemporaneous with La Duse.  Her nose looks twisted, but that might not be Corcos' doing (see below).

By Edoardo Gordigiani - 1890

By Edoardo Gordigiani
Two images by Gordigiani, a less-known artist.

By Franz von Lenbach - 1886
This is in the collection of Seattle's Fry Museum.

By Ilya Repin - 1891
A fine drawing by Repin, who was a major Russian painter active in the late 19th century.

By John Singer Sargent - c. 1883
It seems that Duse only allowed Sargent a brief sitting, so this is little more than a sketch. More regarding what happened can be found here.  Note that (1) his version of her nose agrees with Corcos', and (2) the other portraits tend to show her in profile.

Jacques de Lalaing: Sculptor Who Painted

Jacques de Lalaing (1858-1917), son of Belgian diplomat Count Maximilien de Lalaing and Bengal-born aristocrat Julie Ann Vibert, was born in London. He moved to Belgium in 1875 to pursue training and a career as a painter and sculptor. Being a sculptor, he probably had a better feel for anatomy than many painters. I deal with his paintings in this post.

Lalaing's English wikipedia entry is here, and his French entry is here.

However, the best source of information on him is this fine web site containing biographical information and many examples of his work.

Gallery

Les prisonniers de guerre - 1883
Painted when Lalaing was about age 25. I don't find it very impressive.

Justine de Monie - 1903 (pastel)
Lalaing made a number of highly detailed pastel portraits that, viewed digitally, are hard to distinguish from oil paintings. This was made the same year as the oil painting below, so it's possible that it is a study. On the other hand, the third link above has an example of a pastel that looks like the study of a head in an oil painting, but is dated a year later than the painting (the subject is Ghislaine de Caraman).

Justine de Monie - 1903 (oil on canvas)

Christine du Tour van Bellinchave - c.1893 (pastel)
Sister-in-law of the artist. It seems that this was damaged by a German shell (obus, in the web page text). More likely it was done by a shell fragment, probably in 1914 when the German army overran most of Belgium.

Christine du Tour van Bellinchave
This photo was probably used by Lalaing as reference for the clothing and the pose. Christine's face differs in liveliness and attractiveness -- photographic portraits were often stiff affairs in the 19th century.

Christine du Tour van Bellinchave - 1906
A later portrait, very nicely done.

Berthe Baeyens-Puissant - 1904 (pastel)

Général Donny - 1913
Lalaing also portrayed men.

Hélène de Burlet - 1894 (pastel)

Julie Ann Vibart, the artist's mother

Cécile Gilson de Rouvreux - 1913 (pastel)
A work made shortly before the war and ill health curtailed Lalaing's career.

Dudie Baird, Model

Julia "Dudie" Baird (1872-1932) was a leading artists' model in the 1890s and probably for a while longer. This according to several sources I found on the internet. What is lacking is biographical information about her as well as a comprehensive listing of artworks for which she posed.

Her most famous image is that of the body of the statue of the goddess Diana by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. A biographical snippet related to that is here.

As this link mentions, she posed for Thomas Wilmer Dewing. She also posed once for Dennis Miller Bunker.

If readers know of other paintings or sculptures based on Dudie, please let us know in a comment.

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Diana as seen in the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Portrait in Blue - 1896
This and all but one of the paintings below are by Dewing.

Julia Baird photo

Portrait of a Young Girl - 1888

Portrait of a Lady - 1898

Brocart de Venise - c.1904
Based on facial features, my guess is that this painting and the one above it feature Dudie.

The Mirror - 1890
This was by Dennis Miller Bunker.

Jules Adolphe Goupil, Painter of Fabrics

Jules Adolphe Goupil (1839-1883) has little in the way of biographical information on the internet, if my casual Google search was indicative. Two brief links are here and here.

Basically, he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts under Ary Scheffer, exhibited at the Salon early in his career and eventually became a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. At some point in his career Goupil painted scenes related to the French Revolution, but these didn't appear in Google images. What I did find were several images of paintings of pretty young women clothed in elaborate costumes of silky or patterned fabrics. He was good at depicting such materials, which gave him a useful market niche for his works.

As best I can tell, he was not directly connected to the Goupil art dealership firm, if this Wikipedia entry is any guide.

Below are examples of Goupil's paintings featuring fabrics.

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An Admiring Glance

At the Easel

Lady with a Figurine

The Village Girl

By the Fireplace

Confidences

Seated Woman

More Richard E. Miller Paintings

Richard Edward Miller (1875-1943) painted many pictures of pretty young women in casual settings, often in the American Impressionist style. He often reused the same dresses and other costumes for several paintings over several years, as I posted here. Biographical information on Miller is here.

The present post presents a wider variety of his works made from about 1905 to the early 1940s. Not included are some sketches from around 1900 and a few late Moderne style works (that I'm not yet certain are by him).

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Café de la Paix - c.1905

The Chinese Statuette - 1910
More plaid dresses can be found below.

Chinese Statuette - 1919
A recycled pose.

Mimi
From his days in Giverny, Claude Monet's haunts.

The Green Cage - c.1914

Princess in the Land of Sunshine
This might have been done while he was in Pasadena, California.

Afternoon Thoughts
Her costume can be seen on other paintings.

Woman Seated at Dressing Table - c.1925

Girl sleeping (The Plaid Skirt)
No date for this that I've been able to find, but I think it's a late work due its style.

Young Lady Sewing
The lady's hair style suggests late 1930s or early 1940s.

Young Lady Reading
From around the same time as the previous painting.

André Edouard Marty, Pochoir Illustrator and More

André Edouard Marty (1882-1974) was an École des Beaux-Arts graduate best known for fashion illustration. Two brief biographies are here and here. They both note that Marty was one of four artists whose work appeared every year of the existence of leading fashion journal Gazette du Bon Ton (1912 to 1925).

The Bon Ton featured color illustrations produced by the pochoir (stencil) method. A description is here. Below are examples of Marty's work, some in pochoir, others using more conventional, less tedious methods.

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Fashion illustration - 1913

Les ailes dans le vent - 1919

À l'Oasis La Jupe Lumineuse - 1919

Escaped bird

From Gazette du Bon Ton

La porte du salon ouvrit

La douce nuit - Gazette du Bon Ton - March, 1920

Le pouf

Vogue cover - 1 April, 1925

Vogue cover - 12 March, 1926

Vogue cover - Late January, 1926

Vogue cover - Late August, c.1925
The covers shown here are from French, British and American editions of Vogue. Haute couture was and is quite international.

London Underground Poster - 1933
Marty did posters for the Underground for a few years in the early 1930s.