Alix MORAEL
(Dunkirk 1861 - Bayonne 1976)
A Young Moroccan Girl
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Watercolour.
Signed and dated A. Morael / Rabat 1921 at the lower right.
A typed label reading ‘Cette aquarelle, oeuvre originale de Mademoiselle MORAEL, elève de Mr. DEBAENE, présente une jeune marocaine faite au course de son sejour au Maroc. Offerte par l’artiste à Madame DEHOUCK, Postière à DUNKERQUE, elle me fut donnée par son mari quelque temps après le décès de Madame Dehouck en Janvier 1930 en reconnaissance de services rendus en cette circonstance. M. Maertens.’ pasted onto the old backing board.
300 x 232 mm. (11 7/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
Signed and dated A. Morael / Rabat 1921 at the lower right.
A typed label reading ‘Cette aquarelle, oeuvre originale de Mademoiselle MORAEL, elève de Mr. DEBAENE, présente une jeune marocaine faite au course de son sejour au Maroc. Offerte par l’artiste à Madame DEHOUCK, Postière à DUNKERQUE, elle me fut donnée par son mari quelque temps après le décès de Madame Dehouck en Janvier 1930 en reconnaissance de services rendus en cette circonstance. M. Maertens.’ pasted onto the old backing board.
300 x 232 mm. (11 7/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
The present sheet was drawn in 1921 in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, situated on the Atlantic coast. Unlike Tunisia or Algeria, Morocco had remained largely closed to foreigners throughout the 19th century, until it was declared a French protectorate in 1912. The artist’s father Georges Morael had eventually settled in Rabat, where he established a working farm, and Alix Morael must have made frequent visits to the city. Indeed, she is known to have won a gold medal for painting in Rabat in 1928.
Alix Marguerite Marie Céline Morael was the daughter of Georges Morael, a lawyer and the mayor of the town of Wormhout in northern France, close to the Flemish border. According to the typed label on the old backing board of this drawing, Alix Morael was a pupil of the painter Alphonse Jules Debaene (1853-1928). She became a member of the Société des Artistes Français, and won a silver medal a Versailles in 1912. In 1922 she married André Emile Joseph Le Comte, who died five years later, in 1927.
Provenance
Given by the artist to a Mme. Dehouck, Dunkirk
By descent to her husband in January 1930 and given by him to a M. Maertens (according to a typed label on the old backing board).
By descent to her husband in January 1930 and given by him to a M. Maertens (according to a typed label on the old backing board).