Zélie Durruthy

ZÉLIE DURRUTY (France, 1869-1957).
"Mourning."
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower margin.
Measurements: 116 x 128 cm; 134 x 149 cm (frame).

We are in front of an intimate and subjugating painting as it treats with subtlety and mastery the theme of mourning. It suggests rather than shows, showing us a little girl looking at and holding a woman, probably her mother, by her clothes. The little girl's expression suggests affection, comfort, or perhaps supplication. There is physical contact between them, but above all it is a silent dialogue. The background is neutral, that of a wall on which the mother leans, whose face expresses psychic pain, an idea reinforced by the handkerchief she holds in her right hand. Both are dressed in rigorous black. The atmosphere is sober and melancholic, but also beautiful. The lighting, coming from the left, creates a soft modeling on the faces and figures.

Because of the realistic representation of the figures, the use of a sober palette and the focus on human emotion, the painting fits into a style close to nineteenth-century social realism, with French roots. Stylistically, it is halfway between the French academicism of the late nineteenth century and the more daring approaches of realists such as Courbet or Daumier.

Zélie Durruthy was a French painter, born on April 22, 1869 in Paris and died on February 6, 1957 in Pontoise. She studied with Thirion and Humbert. She exhibited her works in various places, including Versailles, Fontainebleau, Saint-Étienne and in the exhibitions of Women Painters. Among her major works are "Portrait of a Young Girl" (1891) and "Still Alone" (1897).