"Beach of Berck at Low Tide" Oil on Canvas

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"Beach of Berck at Low Tide" Oil on Canvas

About the Item

Louise Abbéma was born in Étampes (region Île-de-France) on 30 October 1853 (not in 1858 as she liked people to believe) where her father was a stationmaster. Only daughter and cherished, if not adored by her parents, she began drawing in her early teens. Louise was very young when she started to study under such great artists of the period as the French painter and engraver - of English origin - Charles Joshua Chaplin (1825-1891), the painter and draftsman Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905) and the painter Carolus-Duran (1837-1917). Louise Abbéma’s preserved work is abundant and as much as varied since the artist has deliberately not chosen for a too narrow specialization. She made portraits as well as decorative panels, artwork, fans, advertising design and a thousand other achievements on various media and themes such as allegorical subjects, genre scenes, interiors, fruits and flowers. Abbéma first received recognition for her work when she painted a portrait of the French stage and early film actress Sarah Bernhardt (1875). She became her lifelong friend of whom she became the official portrait artist. The romance she experienced during several years with this actress was notorious, and well accepted in the society of the time. Yet it was the subject of a discreet allusion in a play by Georges Feydeau (1862-1921) in 1894, 'Le Ruban'. There is even a bronze casting of clasped hands of the two women, acquired by a lesbian association, but it was stolen in the 1990s. In 1990, a painting by Abbéma of both lovers during a little boat ride on the lake in the Bois de Boulogne, was offered as a present to the Comédie-Française. The accompanying letter mentioned that the painting was "Peint par Louise Abbéma, le jour anniversaire de leur liaison amoureuse” ("Painted by Louise Abbéma on the anniversary of their love affair"). In the early 20th century, she attended the salon of Mrs. Lemaire where she met a notorious dandy, writer and poet, Count Robert de Montesquiou-Fézensac (1855-1921), who dedicated a satirical poem at that meeting, 'Abîme' (Abyss). Her works were praised by the French writer and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) in 1879, but disappointed him in 1882. Until 1926 she was a regular exhibitor at the 'Salon des Artistes Français', where she received an honourable mention for her decorative panels in 1881. She won the 'Palme Académique' in 1887, she was awarded a bronze medal at the 1900 'Exposition universelle' and in 1906 decorated as 'Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur'. She was also honoured as the official painter of the Third Republic. Many of Abbéma’s works showed the influence from Chinese and Japanese painters as well as contemporary masters. In all her watercolours, pastels, etchings, numerous portraits, decorative works of art and floral compositions, she sought to achieve a balance between the rigors of academic rules and what was then thought of as the ‘liberties’ taken by the Impressionists. This is most evident in her painting 'Déjeuner dans la Serre' – owned by the Museum of Pau – which evokes the impressionist painter Frederic Bazille (1841-1870) in the gravity and authority of its tones and Édouard Manet (1832-1883) – a figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism – in the richness of its greys and the ‘virility’ of its brush strokes. Abbéma became known for her many portraits of many contemporary notables, particularly high society women. In addition to these portraits, she painted decorative panels and murals, with a preference for floral subjects in the form of etchings, watercolours, pastels and gouaches. Some of these panels adorned the walls of the Town Hall in Paris and several other Parisian town halls (like those of the VIIth, Xth and XXth districts), the Opera House in Paris and numerous theatres including the 'Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt', and the Palace of the colonial governor at Dakar (Senegal). She also worked for magazines such as the 'Gazette des Beaux-Arts' and 'L'Art', and illustrated several books, including' La Mer' (The Sea) by René Maizeroy (1856-1918). Her most important portraits were those of Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), the French actress Jeanne Samary (1857-1890), Ferdinand de Lesseps and her former teachers Henner and Carolus-Duran, but also the architect of the opera house, Charles Garnier (1825-1898). Abbéma was also represented among the female artists whose works (i.e. the portraits of Bernhardt, Carolus-Duran and Garnier) were exhibited in the 'Women's Building of the Fine Arts Palace' at the 1893 'World Columbian Exhibition' in Chicago. Here, a bust of Abbéma sculpted by Sarah Bernhardt was also exhibited. Abbéma also made the portrait of Dom Pedro II, the emperor of Brazil. Due to a strange coincidence an other artist born in Étampes, Élias Robert (1821-1874), was commissioned to create Dom Pedro’s statue in Lisbon. Among her best-known works are 'Déjeuner dans la serre' (1877) ('Lunch in the greenhouse'), 'Dans les fleurs' (1883) ('Among the Flowers'), 'Les Saisons' (1883) ('The Seasons'), 'Matin d’Avril' (1894) ('April Morning'), 'L’Hiver' ('Winter'), 'La Toilette de la Vérité' ('Salon de Paris', 1914) ('The face of the Truth') and 'Flora' (1913). Abbéma died in Paris in 1927 and was buried in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise. At the end of the 20th century, as contributions by women to arts in past centuries received more critical and historical attention, her works enjoyed a renewed popularity. The beach of Berck at low tide, 1881. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated at lower right Louise Abbema 1881. The township Berck or Berck-sur-Mer is situated in the French department Pas-de-Calais. Dimensions: H 87 cm, W 116 cm. Museums: a.o. Étampes, Paris, Pau, Bremen. Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 1) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 20; Gineste, B. (2003-2010), Quelques œuvres de Louise Abbéma; Miquel, P. (1985), Paysage et société 1800-1900, Maurs-la-Jolie: Éd. de la Marturelle, p. 242; Schurr, G. (1975), Les petits maîtres de la peinture, valeur de demain 1820-1920, Paris: Éditions de l’Amateur, vol. 1, p. 107; Ritzenthaler, C. (1987), L’école des Beaux-Arts au XIXe siècle: les Pompiers, Paris: Mayer, p. 12; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 1) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 12.

Creator:
Louise Abbema (Painter)
Dimensions:
Height: 34.25 in (87 cm)Width: 45.67 in (116.01 cm)Depth: 3.54 in (9 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Canvas,Painted
Place of Origin:
Belgium
Period:
1880-1889
Date of Manufacture:
1881
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Brussels & Antwerp, BE
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU95163591782