Beschreibung:

HENRI LEBASQUE (FRENCH 1865-1937)
LA COIFFURE
Oil on canvas
Signed (lower left)
65 x 49cm (25½ x 19¼ in.)
Painted circa 1905-1906.
Provenance:
Galerie du Drap d'Or, Cannes
Private Collection, London (acquired from the above in 1971)
Thence by descent to the late owner
Exhibited:
Probably, Paris, Beaux-Arts, Exposition de la Societe nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1909, no. 710
Literature:
Denise Bazetoux, Henri Lebasque, Catalogue raisonné, vol. I, Paris, 2008, no. 655, illustrated p. 189
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Madame Christine Lenoir and Madame de la Ville Fromoit.
 
La Coiffure shows the artist's wife, Ella, and their eldest daughter, Marthe. It is one of the many depictions of domestic and family life painted by the artist throughout his career. These intimate portrayals capture a moment in time, a glimpse into the lives of those they illustrate. For Lebasque, it was one of his favourite subject matter and he frequently painted Ella, Marthe, his younger daughter Nono (christened Helene) and his son Pierre. Lisa Banner discusses the artist's choice of subject matter: "Lebasque's vision of life led him to concentrate upon intimate domestic scenes and close, interior compositions. He was hailed as the painter of "Joy and Light" by art critics and curators of the Louvre in his later life. But Lebasque's primary concerns were with simple expression of sensuous surface... He achieved an intimate manner of painting those scenes and people most dear to him, which was replete with his personal delight in form and color, heightened by his contact with fellow painters Matisse and Bonnard, but characteristically his own" (L. Banner, Lebasque, 1865-1937, San Francisco, 1985, p. 20).
Lebasque arrived in Paris in 1886, studying under academician Léon Bonnat, receiving a traditional art education. He assisted Ferdinand Humbert with decorative murals at the Panthéon and his early work is characterised by its rather sombre palette. However, he quickly became fascinated with the Impressionist movement and sought to acquaint himself with artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Vuillard and Camille Pissarro. He developed lasting friendships with these painters and his work was undoubtedly influenced by their work, both in subject matter and style.
In 1900, Lebasque settled at Lagny,-sur-Marne in the eastern suburbs of Paris. In 1903, alongside Matisse, Bonnard and Vuillard, amongst others, he was one of the founding members of the inaugural Salon d'Automne. The present work, which dates from a couple of years later, and shortly before the artist's first one-man show at the prestigious Galerie Georges Petit in Paris in 1907, reveals the influence of not only those artists, but also Signac and Seurat.
Lebasque's handling of the paint is soft and sensuous. The short brush strokes echo his former interest in Pointillism whilst the interplay between the colours and the use of contrast with light and shadow show him moving towards a more gestural, intuitive style.