Thérèse Peltier, Portrait of a Woman (1909)

THÉRÈSE PELTIER (Orléans 1873 - Paris 1926) Portrait of a Woman. 1909. Plaster, tinted mauve. H. 47 cm. Signed: Thérèse Peltier. Exhibition: probably exhibited at the Salon of the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors, 1909, under "Portrait of Mrs M., patinated plaster" The sculptor and aviator Thérèse Peltier was born in Orléans in 1873. A student of the sculptor Charles Vital Cornu in the 1890s, she won several awards for her works during the first decade of the 20th century. At the same time, she was an aviator and, in 1908, became the first female pilot in the world. Her partner, the sculptor and aviator Léon Delagrange, died before her eyes in a plane crash near Bordeaux in 1910. This portrait of a woman is most likely "The Portrait of Mrs M., patinated plaster, " exhibited at the Salon of the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1909.