The Koutoubia - Yvonne Thivet 1888-1972

Period Circa 1920-30 Dimensions at sight Height: 64 cm Length: 46.5 cm Dimensions without frame Height: 55 cm Length: 38 cm frame in gilded patinated wood and white marie-louise Signature lower right Located on the back Material Oil on panel

The Koutoubia City of the dreamed Orient, with ocher walls and dotted with flower gardens, the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas emerging in the distance in a cerulean sky, a tumultuous city where trans-Saharan caravans arrive, and in the souk of opulence Almost unequaled, Marrakech made the hearts of those who approached it for the first time beat faster. Yvonne Thivet did not escape this fascination. In this painting, she endeavored to restore the religious soul of the city, the great minaret of the most beautiful of its mosques, the Koutoubia. Its construction began under the reign of the first Almohad sultan, Abdel Moumen, in the middle of the 12th century, and was completed under the reign of his grandson, Yacoub el Mansour in 1199. It stands in the Booksellers' quarter (d 'hence its name), raising its pink sandstone minaret to a height of 69 meters (77m at the highest point of the spire). It dominates the ocher city from wherever you are.

Born on February 4, 1888, Yvonne Thivet studied in the studio of Ferdinand Humbert (1842-1934), at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Especially active in the 1920s, she regularly participated in the Salons of French Artists and exhibited regularly in two of the most famous Parisian galleries, the Galerie Simonson, at 19 rue Caumartin, and the Galerie Reitlinger, at 12 rue de la Boétie. , but also at the Syndicat d'Initiative d'Alger. Fascinated by travel, and by the Maghreb in particular, which she surveys in all directions, she brings back from her escapes, paintings representing scenes of daily life, portraits, picturesque landscapes. She is considered part of the Orientalist movement, of which she is one of the few female representatives. Her delicate sensitivity, the charm with which she expresses light and colors, the truth with which she captures expressions and gestures make her a highly sought-after artist. She married on April 9, 1927, at the age of 39, a medical publicist, Albert Léon Désiré Xavier Berbegier, aged 54, widower in first marriage of Juliette Briodat. She died in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) in her 85th year, on February 5, 1972.

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