?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
ALBERT MATIGNON Femme à la coiffe de perles (Sarah Bernhardt).
Oil on panel, circa 1885. 330x235 mm; 13x9½ inches. Signed and inscribed illegibly in oil, upper right recto.
Provenance: Acquired from Paul Dennis Antiques, New York, 1975, by private collection, New York; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.
Matignon (1860-1937) attended the École des Beaux Arts in Paris as a student of Ernest Hebert (1817-1908) and Albert Maignan (1845-1908). From 1905 to 1928, he drew for L'Illustration, while simultaneously producing advertisements for Lefevre-Utile biscuits and Joseph Perrior champagne. Matignon gained notoriety for his 1905 oil painting La Morphine, depicting young women under the influence of the drug. Despite this shocking subject matter, Matignon was chosen to represent France in the 1932 Summer Olympics art competition. Matignon also exhibited regularly at the prestigious Salon des Artistes Français from 1884 until his death.
. Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French stage actress christened by French playwright Edmond Rostand as "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture." A sculptor as well as a successful actress, Bernhardt exhibited at the Salon in 1878. She likely participated in the same artistic social circle as Albert Matignon and her depiction in the present work represents the romantic vision of femininity that earned Matignon his fame.
