Madeleine Jean Lemaire

MADELEINE JEANE LEMAIRE (France, 1845 - 1928).
"The fishmonger".
Watercolor.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 120 x 100 cm.

At the end of the 19th century, the representation of working women, as in the case of this fishwife immortalized by Madeleine Jeane Lemaire, acquired a new prominence in art, reflecting the social changes and the growing interest in everyday and popular themes. This type of realist painting not only documented the life of the working classes, but also dignified their work, giving them visibility and humanity in a context still dominated by gender stereotypes.

Madeleine Jeane Lemaire was an artist who specialized in gender and flower works. Robert de Montesquiou said that she was the Empress of Roses. She owned a salon where she entertained high society at her hotel particulier on Rue de Monceau. .Lemaire exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. George Painter stated in his book Marcel Proust that she is one of the models for Proust's Madame Verdurin (In Search of Lost Time).