John White Alexander, an American Painter of the Belle Époque in Paris
Very rare in French auction rooms, John White Alexander — one of the American masters of painting — pays us a visit, in the company of an adolescent from the Belle Époque.
Estimate: €30,000/€50,000
In the effervescent Paris of the 1900s, American painter John White Alexander’s reputation for excellence seems to have been well earned, and Portrait d’Édith Révil is ample proof of this… It was around 1880 that the New York artist discovered the City of Light, then the capital of the arts, at the culmination of a European study tour that took him from Munich to Venice. In the city of the Doges, his meeting with his compatriot James Abbott McNeill Whistler proved decisive, the latter having a definitive influence on his work, inspiring him to use fine, diluted matter. In 1881, Alexander eventually returned to New York; but fascinated by Paris, he returned regularly to France, where his annual participation, from 1893 to 1899, in the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts, made him a celebrated and sought-after painter. By 1900, John White Alexander decided to stay longer in the French capital, to fulfill a few prestigious commissions. The result is four portraits, the first three of which are of the sculptor Auguste Rodin, the President of the Republic Émile Loubet and, perhaps, the architect Frantz Jourdain. The last — our painting — depicts Édith Révil, the 14-year-old daughter of Monsieur and Madame Fernand Révil, who commissioned the work. Having made his fortune in the silk industry, the industrialist acquired a townhouse at 199, boulevard Malesherbes. For the posing sessions John White Alexander visited as a neighbor, he was staying at 190 at the time… The result certainly lived up to the expectations of the teenager’s parents, who hung the painting in their living room, as can be seen in a photograph taken at the time. It shows Edith, her long hair adorned with a red flower, facing forward, looking the viewer straight in the eyes and her left hand supporting her chin, while her favorite dog lies at her feet. Adapting his usual virtuosity in rendering the beauty of young women, and the radiance precious fabrics, in scenes with a Symbolist atmosphere, the artist is able to capture the age of his model. In fact, at the retrospective organized in March 1916 at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, after the death of John White Alexander, Portrait d’Édith Révil was considered one of his major works, as it featured prominently in the exhibition catalog, even though the original remained on this side of the Atlantic. As for his young model, she married Jean Guiffrey, curator of the Department of Paintings and Drawings at the Musée du Louvre, in whose lineage the painting has remained to this day.
Sunday 04 May 2025 – 14:00 (CEST) – Live
1, rue de la Crouzette – 34170 Montpellier – Castelnau-le-Lez
Farran Enchères
