Signed oval portrait of a young woman in a rose gown with a short strand of pearls, dated 1925, unframed oil on canvas by Max Moreau

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Max Moreau, Portrait of a Young Woman with Pearls, Signed and Dated 1925, Oil on Canvas, Oval, Unframed

Max Moreau (1902-1992)

Price $4,700 USD

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The unframed oval canvas hung above a marble topped mahogany chest in a bedroom corner, morning light through lace curtains (Max Moreau 1925 portrait)

Macro of the face showing the green eyes cut in against dry blended skin and the pearls painted one by one, each with its own point of light

Reverse showing the unlined canvas on its purpose made oval stretcher, chamfered from the solid with a cross brace, carrying no labels or stamps (Max Moreau 1925 portrait)

Macro of the bodice showing the pleated tulle neckline built in short dry strokes of rose and white with green and blue worked through it

Macro of the right shoulder showing the rose scarf laid in thick oblique strokes with red and grey blue accents, a chair back suggested behind in two broad passages

Macro of the signature, Max Moreau written in red with the date 1925 beneath and a single underscore, on the rose ground of the gown

Close macro of the red signature Max Moreau dated 1925, brushed over dry paint, with the open craquelure of the gown around it

Macro of the neckline showing each pearl modelled in raised paint and the pleated trim drawn in twenty short strokes through wet cream, the canvas weave counting through the bodice

Macro of the eyes, green with a dark rim to the iris and the same point of white set in each, the whites laid in grey rose rather than white

Macro of the left shoulder where the loaded strokes of the gown meet the thin ground, the bare weave showing through the background and the craquelure following only the thick paint

Raking view of the top edge showing the canvas tacked directly to the oval stretcher on its unpainted turnover, the painted surface stopping cleanly short of the fold

Close view of the oval stretcher built from angled wooden segments jointed edge to edge, with a halved cross brace and plane marks across the timber

Macro of the stretcher bar stamped with the French trade format 15 P, matching the sixty five by fifty centimetre size of the oval canvas

Three quarter view of the oval stretcher showing the segments stepped along their inner edge to follow the curve, with the halved cross brace set back in the depth

She is smiling, and almost nobody smiles in a painted portrait. Not broadly, but the mouth is turned up at one corner and the eyes go with it.

Oil on canvas, unlined, 26 x 20 inches (66 x 51 cm) oval, unframed. Signed and dated Max Moreau 1925 in red, lower right. Belgian.

A young woman turned three quarters to the right against a warm grey ground, her hair waved and cut short at the jaw, a single strand of small pearls at the throat. She wears a pink gown with a pale grey panel at the front, the whole of it laid in broad wet strokes with the brush marks left standing, while the face is worked smooth and close. The background carries a suggestion of a chair back at the right and nothing else.

Cut for a shape that no longer existed
The oval portrait belongs to the eighteenth century, and by 1925 it had been out of fashion for a hundred years. This one is painted on a stretcher purpose built in curved segments, which costs more than a rectangle and cannot be bought ready made. Somebody asked for it. The bobbed hair and the low necked gown are of their moment exactly, and the format around them is deliberately not.

Original unlined canvas on its purpose made oval stretcher, built from jointed segments with a cross brace, sound throughout. An open but stable craquelure follows the thickly painted passages of the gown, the thin ground being free of it.

Provenance ▾

Private collection, France

Artist

Max Moreau (1902-1992)

Period

1925

Origin

Belgium

Style

Belgian Realism

Medium

Oil on canvas

Signature

Signed and dated Max Moreau 1925, lower right, in red

Features

Original, one of a kind, signed, unframed

Painting

26 x 20 inches (oval)

Condition

Good original condition. Original unlined canvas on its purpose made oval stretcher, built from jointed segments with a cross brace, sound throughout. An open but stable craquelure follows the thickly painted passages of the gown, the thin ground being free of it.

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Antique Portrait Paintings26 works for sale Subject