Margherite Mary Darbour

MARGHERITE MARY DARBOUR (Florence, XIX-XX century).
"Lying nude".
Oil on canvas.
Signed on the lower left.
Measurements: 54 x 65 cm; 76 x 87 cm (frame).

This delicate feminine academy gives off a lot of sensuality. The blond hair, the sweet eyes, the rosy cheeks and the body of the protagonist are completely abandoned to the painter's gaze, who represents her in a precious environment of fabrics, cushions and silks. The subject, the oval format and the decoration of Jouy's canvas evoke the gallant and libertine scenes of the 18th century by Boucher and Fragonard. The range of pinks and whites, enhanced by the pale blue, veers from the pink of the complexion to the pink reflections of the kimono, the sheets and the pillowcases adorned with lace, passing through the vermillion pink of the lips and the toile de Jouy of the background.

Marguerite Mary Darbour trained in Florence, her native city, and finished her studies in Paris at the end of the 19th century under the watchful eye of Henri Gervex. She exhibited female figures, nudes, portraits and landscapes at the Salon des Indépendants in 1903, as well as at the Salons de la Nationale and the Tuileries in 1920. The female nude is the artist's favorite subject, the one she treats best and the one that offers us her best paintings.