Marthe orant (1874-1957), spring, oil on canvas

Marthe ORANT (1874-1957) Spring. Oil on canvas. Early 20th century. The canvas has been mounted on a new stretcher. Red stamp from the sale of Dominique Bondu at the bottom right: auctioneer in Paris, Sales from the Marthe Orant studio, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 8 November 1989 and 9 February 1990. Dimensions: 58 X 70 cm. Marthe Orant was a French painter born in Poissy on 3 June 1874 and died in the 14th arrondissement of Paris on 27 August 1957. If it was at the convent that "like all young girls from good families during the Belle Époque, she learned the rudiments of painting" — her drawings will reflect her being profoundly marked by the fact that she left to find a father who had become blind. Marthe Orant then had as teachers Marcel Baschet, Maurice Bompard, and Henri Royer, before finally getting closer to the Nabis and receiving advice from Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. Very close to these two artists to the point of developing an intimate relationship with each of them, her painting evolved alongside them, and critics, as well as the Dictionnaire des Peintres Bénézit, would say of her: "In unconventional and exuberant compositions, her colour harmonies, both refined and bold, placed her in the lineage of Renoir to Bonnard." She lived at 103, rue de Vaugirard in Paris from 1930 and died at the Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris on 27 August 1957. "[...] A forgotten talent, but one that had been recognised by the greatest: Maurice Denis, Vuillard, Bonnard, Signac, and without a doubt, Marthe Orant owes them all for having found the truth of her style. She long watched Vuillard, prince of nuance, paint in his studio, and did not forget his lesson, that profound virtue of rare hues and the grace of the brush that makes each of her paintings a pastel sky [...] Marthe Orant, who entered the religion of painting to the point of priesthood and whose passion led her to madness, but who never ceased to illustrate the childhood of her heart. She knew no other absolute than [...]".