Louise Catherine Breslau - Portrait Of Anatole France - Lithograph

1922
Signed lower left in the plate “LCB / 1922”, countersigned lower left in the margin “38e epr. s. 50 LCB » Dedicated below on the mounting sheet: « Dernier portrait d’Anatole France corrigeant / l’édition ne varietur de « la Reine Pédauque » / Louise Catherine Breslau ft. » Freckles.

According to the memories of Louise-Catherine Breslau [1], she met Anatole France (1844-1924) when both were beginning their careers, in 1881. Of the writer, she said that he had "a head bizarre, strange, charming and disturbing”[2], “with a beautiful and fascinating strangeness”[3].
However, it was only much later, in the very last years of the writer's life, that she portrayed him in order to “keep an image of him”[4]. In 1921 and 1922, she produced two portraits of the man who had just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and was then considered one of the greatest writers of his time. The first, in pastel, is kept at the Château de Versailles, while the second, this lithographed portrait, was printed in 50 copies. As its legend indicates, the latter was produced on the spot, while Anatole France was correcting the definitive edition of La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque. Represented in three quarters, concentrated on his reading, he wears the red cap, which brings a touch of color contrasting with his white hair and beard.
Recalling the posing session, Breslau confided that seeing her admire him while he read certain passages from his book aloud to her, the writer admitted: “Yes, it's not bad. »[5]

[1] Louise Breslau, “Souvenirs sur Anatole France”, in Madeleine Zillhardt, Louise-Catherine Breslau et ses amis, 1932, Paris, Éditions des Portiques, p. 215-225
[2] Ibid, p. 215
[3] Ibid, p. 221.
[4] Ibid, p. 222.
[5] Ibid, p. 222.