Offered by Galerie de Frise
Louis Adolphe TESSIER (Angers 1858 - Angers 1915)
Portrait of a woman under a trellis with a basket of peaches
Pastel
H. 115 cm ; L. 75 cm
Signed lower right and dated 1890
Louis Adolphe Tessier, a painter from Anjou, studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. His career path remains rather nebulous but seems to be centered on the city of Angers where he lives. Rewarded at the Salon des Artistes Français as early as 1886 with an honorable mention, he obtained other artistic salutations until he became a member at the beginning of the century.
He painted portraits and numerous genre scenes with acidulous colors and full of life.
Does this wonderful pastel represent a close friend of the painter? His wife? No indication allows us to make an identification, but its quality, its light and its very unusual composition make it more a scene than a portrait. The verticality of this leaf, more than a meter high, is composed of a triangle descending from the bun to the stone entablature, into which the bright red of the blouse is inserted. Situated under a vine whose grapes have reached maturity, this young woman looking at the spectators has just detached a grape from the bunch, and is about to take it to her mouth. Should this gesture accompanied by the peaches be seen as an invitation? If we refer to the language of fruit used in 17th century still lifes, the interpretation is the right one. If not, the painter has simply composed his work by giving movement through the action of his model.
Framed by foliage, the young woman, corseted at the waist with a brown belt, smiles very slightly at the viewer. In her bun is a white flower resembling an anemone, with two others inserted in her blouse. The small woven wicker basket in the foreground displays her ripe peaches.
Without a doubt, the viewer is invited to enter the painting, or at least to set up a discussion while remaining on her side of the wall.
