Jeanne Rongier (1852-1929) - Autumn Flower - 1895 - Oil On Canvas

This portrait of a solitary woman advancing on a path strewn with leaves, bordered on one side by trees bare by autumn and on the other by a rosebush in bloom, is the work of a woman artist, Jeanne Ronger. Born in Mâcon, she first trained with the painter Henri Sénart before going to Paris, where she became a pupil of Henri Harpignies and Évariste-Vital Luminais. In 1869, aged only 16, she began with a watercolor at the Salon of the Society of French Artists. She successfully presented oil paintings there from 1875. She also exhibited in several provincial salons (Besançon, Lyon, Mulhouse, Nantes, Toulouse, etc.) and, from 1895, with the Society of Women Artists at the Georges Petit gallery. Specializing in portraits and genre scenes, during her first participation in women artists in 1895, she exhibited Roses d'Automne. It could be this painting, dated 1895 and whose old label on the reverse indicates: "Mademoiselle J. Rongi[er] / 48 Bvard des Batignolles / Fleur d'automne".