Paul César Helleu

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 1989, lot 116
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Detroit Institute of Arts, June 30, 1989 - June 30, 1991

Please contact the 19th Century European Paintings Department at (212) 606-7140 for the condition report for this lot.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

As a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in the late 1870s, Paul César Helleu was introduced to Claude Monet, Giovanni Boldini, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent, whose style and technique would have significant influence on the young artist’s career. The following decade, Helleu befriended Robert de Montesquieu, the French aesthete and poet, and, together with his cousin the Countess Greffulhe, he introduced the artist to Paris’ cultural and social elite, including many of the fashionable women who sat for the artist’s celebrated pastels. In the present work, among the larger compositions by the artist, Helleu employs his characteristic palette of harmonious blue and grey to depict Mathilde See, herself an artist and known primarily for flower paintings (which the artist alludes to with this backdrop of bright and colorful pansies).  In addition to La Femme aux Fleurs, Mathilde See is depicted in a pastel of 1890 in which she wears a fashionable hat of floral decoration.

Please note that in the print catalogue for this sale, this lot appears as number 214T.