Claude-Emile Schuffenecker

Jeanne Schuffenecker, Paris (the artist's daughter)
Galerie Berri-Raspail, Paris
Hammer Galleries, New York
Acquired by the father of the present owner in the 1960s

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Scènes et figures parisiennes, 1943

The present work represents the artist's wife, Louise, with her two children, Jeanne and Paul, playing in the Luxembourg garden in Paris.  According to Jill-Elyse Grossvogel, " preliminary studies confirm the importance of this work and include details of Louise's face and hat in profile, her lowered hand with white linen, the folding wooden seat, the iron support of the park bench in the background left, as well as the outfit she wears showing her wide-striped skirt.  From the age of the children, the painting was executed in the period between 1886-1888.  Émile Bernard wrote a poem describing this composition in detail.  The technique reflects Schuffenecker's continuing interest in a modification of Seurat's Pointillism and is typical of his landscapes and marines completed in the years following 1886 until the end of the decade" (Jill-Elyse Grossvogel, letter to author, 18 September 2005).