Marcel Perrot (XIX-XX) - Portrait de femme, 1912

Marcel Perrot (19th-20th centuries)
Portrait of a Woman, 1912

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated 1912.

Interesting female portrait by Marcel Perrot, a French painter active from the late 19th to the early 20th century, whose known work falls within figurative painting and portraiture in the academic tradition of his time.

The work portrays an elderly woman, captured from the bust and slightly turned toward the viewer. The sobriety of the attire and the background concentrates all attention on the face, which constitutes the true psychological and luminous nucleus of the composition.

Perrot builds the features with a visible and relatively loose brushstroke. The ochres, earth tones, pinks, and warm flesh tones contrast with the deep blacks and browns that dominate the dress and the surroundings. Particularly interesting is the treatment of the hair, executed with glazes and grayish, ocher, and bluish brushstrokes that allow modeling its volume without resorting to an excessively rigid drawing.

The face shows a will for individual and psychological characterization. The gaze, serious and restrained, together with the mouth’s expression and the lighting concentrated on the forehead, cheeks, and nose, give the subject a notable presence. The execution avoids excessive idealization and preserves the signs of the sitter’s age.

Over the dark dress stands a small oval brooch, a small bright point that deliberately breaks the great black mass of the attire and contributes to the chromatic balance of the composition.

From a stylistic point of view, the painting maintains clear continuity with the French 19th-century portrait tradition, although it incorporates a looser and more synthetic brushwork characteristic of early 20th-century painting. The result combines the sobriety of traditional portraiture with a more modern and directly pictorial execution.

The work is clearly signed “M. Perrot” and dated “1912” in the upper right corner, both elements in reddish tones perfectly integrated into the painted surface.

Marcel Perrot is a still sparsely documented artist in available biographical sources, so it seems prudent to avoid assigning concrete birth and death dates without conclusive documentation. However, other works attributed to the artist are known within the art market, including figurative and orientalist compositions.

Condition report

The painting shows signs of its age, with craquelure, wear, small losses of pictorial material, and various surface alterations visible in the photographs, particularly in certain lower areas. It is recommended to examine the images carefully, as they form an integral part of the description and allow an assessment of the work’s current state.

The work is currently framed.

IMPORTANT ABOUT THE FRAME

The frame that appears in the photographs is provided exclusively as a GIFT along with the work. The frame is not part of the lot for valuation purposes, has no commercial value attributed, and is included only as a courtesy for the buyer.

The frame also shows signs of age, wear, and various defects. Any damage sustained by the frame during transport cannot be grounds for a claim or affect the valuation of the acquired work.

The work will be carefully packed professionally, using appropriate materials to provide maximum protection during transport.

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