Adrienne Marie Louise GRANDPIERRE-DEVERZY - Lot 102

Adrienne Marie Louise GRANDPIERRE-DEVERZY (Tonnerre 1798 - Paris 1869) Abel de Pujol's studio of women painters Oil on canvas Signed lower left Adrienne grand pierre / April 1826 Damage Born in 1798 in Tonnerre (Yonne), Adrienne Grandpierre-Deverzy joined the Paris studio of painter Alexandre Denis Abel de Pujol (known as Abel de Pujol) in 1822. Long friends, the two married in 1856. Until this marriage, she signed her works under her maiden name "Grandpierre-Deverzy", then sometimes "Adrienne de Pujol". Adrianne made her debut at the Salon of 1822 with her painting L'Atelier d'Abel de Pujol (now at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris), which depicts her master's studio and innovatively demonstrates the presence of female student painters in artists' studios. At a time when women's access to artistic training was limited (for example, the study of the nude was often forbidden to women), Adrienne Grandpierre-Deverzy established herself as an active and recognized figure of female painting. L'Atelier d'Abel de Pujol depicts artistic education and the place of women in the studio, a subject rarely dealt with at the time. Our painting, dated four years later, takes up this subject: the space depicted here is exclusively reserved for ladies and demoiselles. In those days, artists were scrupulous about avoiding any mixing, organizing separate workshops - or sessions on different days - for girls and young men. For reasons of modesty, drawing from live models was strictly forbidden. In fact, the only casts on our canvas are busts, not full bodies. On the left, a large window lets the main light into the room. Sketches of several works decorate the walls of the studio, and we can imagine that they are largely in Abel Pujol's hand (as in the painting at Marmottan). In 1856, the author of this picture became the second wife of Alexandre Denis Abel de Pujol. Twenty years earlier, in 1836, she had already signed another studio view, in which the painter is shown working on a large format, while a young woman poses nude in front of him (in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes).