Louise Marie BECQ DE FOUQUIÈRES
(Paris 1824 - Paris 1891)
A Young Breton Woman from Fouesnant
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Pastel.
Signed, inscribed and dated Lse Becq de Fouquières / Fouesant / 1869 along the right edge.
468 x 369 mm. (18 3/8 x 14 1/2 in.)
Signed, inscribed and dated Lse Becq de Fouquières / Fouesant / 1869 along the right edge.
468 x 369 mm. (18 3/8 x 14 1/2 in.)
Only a very few works by Louise Becq de Fouquières have appeared on the art market.
As the inscription on this large pastel notes, the woman depicted here is wearing a typical headdress worn by Breton women in Fouesnant, a commune in Brittany that lies on the south coast of Finistère, not far from Quimper. Several similar Breton subjects appear among the works that Becq de Fouquières sent to the annual Salons, notably a pastel entitled Jeune fille de Kerfunton (Finistère), shown at the Salon of 1877.
As the inscription on this large pastel notes, the woman depicted here is wearing a typical headdress worn by Breton women in Fouesnant, a commune in Brittany that lies on the south coast of Finistère, not far from Quimper. Several similar Breton subjects appear among the works that Becq de Fouquières sent to the annual Salons, notably a pastel entitled Jeune fille de Kerfunton (Finistère), shown at the Salon of 1877.
Louise Marie Anaïs Dedreux was the youngest sister of the painter Alfred De Dreux. In 1847, following the death of her elder sister Elise the previous year, Louise married Elise’s widowed husband, Aimé Napoléon Victor Becq de Fouquières (1811-1880). Louise studied with the painter Isidore Pils, who drew a charming pencil study of her seated at her easel, painting a portrait1. Louise first exhibited her work at the Salon of 1857, showing a pastel entitled La prière. She made a particular specialty of pastel portraits of women, many of which were exhibited at the Salons between 1857 and 1884, alongside a number of landscapes. Among her close friends was Georges-Hippolyte Géricault, the natural son of the artist Théodore Géricault, with whom she had an extensive correspondence.
Literature
André Cariou, Concarneau et ses environs vus par les peintres, Spézet, 2022, illustrated p.20.