Jules Flandrin

JULES FLANDRIN (France, 1871-1947).
"Portrait of Henriette Deloras, 1925.
Oil on canvas.
Work exhibited in: Japan in 1926-1927 by the Société d'art franco-japonais de Tokyo.
-Lyon Galerie des Jacobins Troncin frères (January 13-29, 1936), 5: Le melon - Archives of Mr. Georges Flandrin.
A postcard was published of this painting.
Signed twice on the lower left.
Measurements: 65 x 50 cm; 84 x 70 cm (frame).
This 1925 portrait is one of the most personal and modern examples of Jules Flandrin's painting. In it he represents his companion and muse, the painter Henriette Deloras, whom he portrays wearing a hat, in a synthetic and colorful composition that reveals the union between biographical intimacy and plastic audacity.
The relationship between Flandrin and Deloras has its roots in her childhood. After the death of her father in 1905, Henriette, a native of Grenoble, settled with her grandmother in Corenc, whose property adjoined that of the Flandrin family. There she met the painter, thirty years older, who noticed the vigor of her drawings and encouraged her to continue, opening the doors of his studio to her. Over time, this apprenticeship turned into love and a constant artistic dialogue.
The attraction to Paris led Henriette to immerse herself in the cultural effervescence of the capital in the post-war years. She discovered jazz bars and clubs, which she captured with spontaneity and intuition in her works. She was described by Andry Farcy, curator of the Grenoble Museum, as "the charming and turbulent little bird of the Dauphiné, tireless stroller of this Paris that she loved so much".
In the portrait, Flandrin elevates his companion to the category of icon. He places her at the center of the composition with the dignity of a Madonna, bathed in a light that enhances her figure and envelops her in bright colors. The painter resorts to symbols loaded with meaning. The work stands out for its formal modernity. Over the predominant gray, accents of color vibrate. This language places Flandrin in the orbit of Maurice Denis and the Nabis, with whom he shares the search for formal and chromatic synthesis, and also brings him closer to the Matissian use of color.
A disciple of Gustave Moreau, Flandrin cultivated a painting of landscapes, still lifes and intimate scenes, always marked by expressive freedom and the desire for synthesis. From 1897 he exhibited regularly at the Salon du Champ de Mars and in 1898 he joined the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he was one of the youngest members. In 1909, the discovery of the Russian ballets in Paris enriched his visual imagination. He was appointed member of the Salon d'Automne in 1911, received the Legion of Honor in 1912 and participated in numerous international exhibitions: London (1910), Interlaken, Berlin and Munich (1913).