GUSTAVE MOREAU (FRANCE/ 1826-1898) - Lot 102

GUSTAVE MOREAU (FRANCE/ 1826-1898) Portrait of a woman Graphite on paper 21.9 x 29.2 cm. Inscribed upper left: "Hypolyte de la Jude Clairon. Comédienne Françoise / Pensionnaire du Roi, debuted on Sbre 19, 1743 / with the role of Phèdren in Racine's play of the same name / [...] the following October 22 / Drawing by Pougin de Saint-Aubin." PROVENANCE Private collection, Paris. EXHIBITION Paris, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Quand Moreau signait Chassériau, Carnets d'études 3, October-December 2005, p. 54, no. 30 (the present work illustrated). RELATED WORK - Sale, Artcurial, Paris, June 20, 2011, lot 186 (Portrait d'Alexandrine Fanier, from the same series as the present work, sold for €5,610 including costs). Gustave Moreau executed a series of medallion portraits based on engraved representations of famous 18th-century actresses (Alexandrine Fanier, Adrienne Lecouvreur). The present work, inscribed with the name of the actress Hippolyte Clairon (1723-1803), can be compared with a sketchier drawing of the same subject in the Musée Gustave Moreau (inv. Des. 13259-18).