François Martin-kavel - Portrait Of An Elegant Woman With A Fan

François MARTIN-KAVEL Paris, 1861 – 1931 Portrait of an elegant lady with a fan Oil on wooden panel 24 x 19 cm (33.5 x 27.5 cm with frame) Signed and dated top left “Martin-Kavel / 85" Beautiful 19th century frame in gilded wood Very good condition François Martin-Kavel painted portraits of women naked or dressed in exotic costumes ("The beautiful gypsy", "The umbrella", "Young woman with a muff", “The flirtatious surprise”...). He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français between 1881 and 1931. In 1892 he visited the United States for the first time, in New York. Martin-Kavel was particularly collected in North America and appreciated for his very attractive female figures with a great finish in the workmanship (we can note in our painting the remarkable detail of the jewelry and the delicacy of the lady's fingers). Even today his paintings are regularly sold at auction across the Atlantic. Martin Kavel is one of those painters who sought to highlight feminine beauty from the 1880s and during the Belle Epoque. But as much as some of these portraits show a certain sentimentality, our portrait is simply that of a beautiful woman with a charming look and smile with a realistic psychology reminiscent of the art of Toulouse-Lautrec. Moreover, because of the prepared position, the heavily painted face and the presence of a fan, it is possible that it is the portrait of an actress.