Maximilienne GUYON (1868-1903) Self-portrait. Oil... Lot 16

Maximilienne GUYON (1868-1903) Self-portrait. Oil on panel signed in the upper right corner. Height : 35 cm. Width : 27 cm. (Repentirs, cracks). Maximilienne Guyon was a figure, as forgotten as endearing, of the art world in the Paris of the Belle Epoque. Trained at the Académie Julian, she was close to Princess Mathilde and won a medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition. She was one of the exhibitors in the Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. She was a prolific illustrator and a contributor to the magazines Le Monde Illustré and l'Illustration. She also developed a practice of portraiture which opened the doors of the great world to her: the Rothschilds, Alexandre Dumas, etc. Her physiognomy being known to us thanks to a photograph by Pierre Petit (in Nos peintres et sculpteurs, Paris, Flammarion, 1896, p. 200), it seems to us that our delicate painting is a beautiful self-portrait revealing the gracious features of the young painter.