529

Alexandre-Georges-Henri Regnault (French, 1843-1871), "La Poissoniere (Fishmonger) from Tangiers, Morocco", ca. 1869-1870, oil on canvas laid on cigar box cover, signed lower right, verso with a late 19th-/early 20th-century auction label, London, stating "from the Collection of the Right Honorable the Lord Menin of Albergaria," and two 1912 news clippings from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 5-3/4" x 9-3/4". Framed. Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. William Allen Mears of the Perry Hotel, Seattle, Washington. Exhibited: Central District, Seattle, Washington, 1912. Published: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 5, 1912. This stunning study of a Moroccan fishmonger returning from the market at dusk with her basket is a rare glimpse into Regnault's brief sojourn in Tangiers, a city he had intended to return to after buying a home with fellow artist Georges Clairin before his untimely death in the "Battle of Buzenal" during the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. Regnault's early career was marked by extreme success within the academic traditions of the Paris Salon. After studying under Alexandre Cabanel and Louis Lamothe, he won the coveted "Prix de Rome" in 1866, a prestigious award that guaranteed a three-year scholarship to study in Rome at the expense of the state. Regnault, however, was the first recipient not to complete his studies in Italy, preferring instead the "exoticism" of the North African colony of Morocco. Regnault is best known, not for his Grand Prix entry - "Thetis Bringing the Arms Forged by Vulcan to Achilles", but for his Moorish-gypsy inspired interpretation of Salome - the biblical seductress, who ordered the beheading of John the Baptist. Hailed an immediate success at the Paris Salon, the painting captured international headlines again in 1912 after it was auctioned as part of the Carcano Collection for which a bidding war ensued between the Louvre Museum (on behalf of the French government) and a New York art dealer, who was the victorious bidder at $105,000. "Salome" was a tour-de-force of "Orientalism" inspired by Regnault's travails in Tangiers. With its Moorish architecture, colorful Berber markets, sun-drenched beaches and stepped coastline off the Strait of Gibraltar, Tangiers captivated 19th-century French artist and writers alike. In the painting offered here, a work contemporaneous with the execution of "Salome", a Muslim woman, lit from behind in orbs of gold and burnt-orange, walks home along the quay with the last rays of sunlight reflecting off the water and and off the white hijab (head covering) that frames her face. This remarkable study is a vestige of Renault's Moroccan legacy, and a window into the works he would have done. The provenance behind this painting is as equally impressive. Though no records were found on Lord Menin of Albergaria, the alleged owner of the painting according to the British auction label en verso, the two accompanying 1912 news articles from the Seattle-Post Intelligencer lend credence to this provenance. One of the articles, which is tattered and lacking much of its text, describes this painting at length as belonging to Mrs. W. A. Mears (1845-1913), a socialite "of the Perry Hotel, of this city", who was the wife of William Allen Mears (1849-1916), the Manager of the Transportation Bureau, New Seattle Chamber of Commerce. The article then states that the painting was acquired (?) from the Uncle of Louis Pinto, the Marquis de Soveral - a Portuguese nobleman, with family ties to Albergaria, a municipality in the Aveiro District in Portugal, and will be exhibited in "...Galleries" in the Central district "as a matter of interest to art...".


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