Émilien MULOT DURIVAGE (1838-1920) Lot n° 136

The painter's studio. Oil on wood panel signed lower left. 55 x 30.5 cm. Provenance: remained in the artist's family by descent. Good condition except for the varnish, which is a little yellowed. There are some key figures in the Impressionist movement and others who are virtually unknown. However, in 1874, at the first first exhibition of artists grouped together in the "Société anonyme coopérative des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs" in Nadar's former studios - the famous first Impressionist exhibition - the Norman Mulot Durivage was present alongside Monet, Degas, Renoir, Morisot, Pissarro, Guillaumin, Sisley... The destinies of these artists would be flamboyant. Mulot Durivage's will be confidential. Yet he was still involved in the seventh Impressionist exhibition at Durand-Ruel in 1882. And at the Salon of 1887. His works are mainly landscapes, but he also tried his hand at interior scenes and still lifes. He is clearly fond of intimate, peaceful interiors, where he lets the bourgeois atmosphere of the creator's studio filter through. The north-facing bay window - which can be hidden by curtains - the carpets, tablecloths, objects and plants, all skilfully organized, are part of the decorum. In the oil on canvas Woman painter in her studio - perhaps her sister - (79 x 68 cm, private collection), these motifs are repeated, with backlighting and window perspective. For our painting, the painter chose not to depict a human figure. Its presence is skilfully evoked by the easel seen in perspective, on which the landscapes and still lifes hanging on the room's walls.