Louis Adolphe Tessier (1858-1915) Portrait Of A Woman Under An Arbor And With A Basket Of Peaches

Louis Adolphe TESSIER
(Angers 1858 – Angers 1915)
Portrait of a woman under a vine trellis and with a basket of peaches
Pastel
H. 115 cm; L. 75 cm
Signed lower right and dated 1890

A painter from Angevin, Louis Adolphe Tessier trained at the Beaux-Arts in Paris in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. His career thereafter remains rather nebulous but seems centered on the city of Angers where he lives. Rewarded at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1886 with an honorable mention, he obtained other artistic honors until he became a member at the beginning of the century.
He produces portraits, many genre scenes in acid colors and full of life.

Does this wonderful pastel represent someone close to the painter? His wife ? No indication allows us to advance an identification, but its quality, its light and its very unusual composition make it more of a scene than a portrait. All in verticality, this sheet of more than one meter high is composed in a triangle descending from the chignon to the stone entablature, in which the bright red of the blouse is inserted. Located under a trellis whose grapes have reached maturity, this young woman watching the spectators has just detached a grain from the bunch, and is about to put it in her mouth. Should this gesture accompanied by the peaches be seen as an invitation? If we refer to the language of fruit that was used in the still lifes of the seventeenth century, the interpretation is correct. If this is not the case, the painter has simply composed his work by giving movement through the action of his model.

Framed by foliage, the young woman with her waist corseted with a brown belt smiles very slightly at the viewer. In her bun is arranged a white flower resembling an anemone, two more of which are inserted into her blouse. The small woven wicker basket in the foreground displays its ripe peaches.

Without a doubt, the amateur is invited to enter the painting, or at least to set up a discussion while remaining on his side of the wall.