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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
CHARLES-CARL GESMAR (1900-1928) "Mlle. Damia." Study portrait of the French singer, Marie-Louise Damien, otherwise known as Damia. Gouache and pencil on paper. 14 x 11 inches. Inscribed "Mlle. Damia. Gesmar" on verso. Unfinished costume sketch on verso.
DAMIA (Marie-Louise Damien, 1889-1978) was a singer in the French chanson réaliste tradition, which is to say that she sang about dark, earthbound, working-class subjects. The stars of that style, which had its beginnings before the first World War and lasted until after the second, were nearly all women, including Édith Piaf, the rough-and-tumble Fréhel, the ravaged Nitta-Jo, the disillusioned Lucienne Delyle, the flirtatious Mistinguett, the stentorian Suzy Solidor. Damia was called la tragédienne, and she embodied the role with her unflinching demeanor, her upward gaze, her invariable black sheath (an article of clothing she bequeathed to subsequent generations of torch singers), and her remarkable voice.
