Antoine Auguste Thivet, The Little Fairy, Oil On Panel

Antoine Auguste THIVET
(Paris 1856-1927)
The little fairy
oil on panel, one board, not parqueted
33 x 24 cm; 39 x 30 cm (framed)
signed 'A. Thivet' at the bottom right

Selected bibliography:
Bénézit, Paris, Ernest Gründ Editor

Notable museums:
Media library of heritage and photography, Charenton-le-Pont Museum of Fine Arts, Orléans

Find out more:
Antoine-Auguste Thivet trained at the School of Fine Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme, Aimé Millet, Adolphe Yvon, and Louis-Jules Étex. From 1877, he exhibited at the Paris Salon and became a member of the Society of French Artists, receiving an honorable mention in 1899. Thivet painted orientalist scenes and portraits; he specializes in the female nude. This captivating painting depicts a fairy with a childlike figure, wrapped in white drapery and wearing a pink starry veil. There is a feeling of gentleness and mysterious magic specific to fairy painting, a genre that flourished during the Victorian era. Nineteenth-century England, with the rise of industrialization and the technological advances that accompanied it, was marked by rapid cultural changes. Faced with these upheavals, imaginary and fantastic worlds are finding renewed interest in the arts and literature, offering spectators an escape into an enchanted world.