Lot 36: Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Gabrielle Réjane

Henry Herbert La Thangue, R.A. (1859-1929)
Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Gabrielle Réjane
signed 'H H LA THANGUE' (lower left)
oil on canvas
10 1/8 x 8 3/8 in. (25.7 x 21.3 cm.)

B. Barclay, Manchester, by 1939.

In January 1880, Henry Herbert La Thangue enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. 1 He had been awarded a two-year travelling scholarship from the Royal Academy Schools in London, where he had studied since the age of fifteen. As a Gold Medallist he went armed with a letter of recommendation from the Academy's president, Sir Frederic Leighton to Jean-Lion Gérôme, chef d'atelier at the école . A talented student, the young Englishman now perfected his draughtsmanship, to the extent that his life studies were retained in the atelier as examples for other students. One, a product of nineteen hours work, was returned to the Academy as proof of his diligence, when he applied for the second half of his scholarship in 1881.

On reflection, La Thangue was critical of Gérôme's tendency to treat all his pupils alike. The routines of a professor with seventeen years experience and a successful independent career were well established and it would not be surprising to discover that in the lively British art student community in 1881, La Thangue learned of other, more liberal regimes in the popular ateliers of Julian and Colarossi. The latter in particular, specialized in costumed models and permitted students to paint. It was favoured by those who, like John Lavery, wished to adapt their studies to commercial ends. A model, dressed in Tudor or Stuart costume, could, when painted, be 'ticketed' as a hero or heroine from literature or history and hopefully, to be sold.

Although an immediate sale is unlikely to have been his goal, it is suggested that the present study from the costumed model originates in the second year of La Thangue's Paris studentship. As such, it is one of his earliest works to have survived. Its technique differs from the systematic 'square' brushwork of later years, and is more in accord with Nude Study , (fig 1), the only surviving painting likely to have been produced under the tutelage of Gérôme. Vigorous brushstrokes in the dress and the sensitive rendering of the head, point towards the half-length studies of fieldworkers which La Thangue was yet to paint. The model in this case appears to be attired in seventeenth century costume of the type revived in eighteenth century portraiture.

A myth that this work represents the French actress, Gabrielle-Charlotte Reju, known as Gabrielle Réjane (1856-1920), then at the beginning of her highly successful career, may be apocryphal. Although it would not be unusual for a young actress to pose for painters, early photographs of Réjane tend to disprove a connection with the present work. 3 A full-length painting of the same model dated 1881, executed in Paris exists and is thought to be the work of James Guthrie. This suggests the ambiance of a teaching atelier, and the fact that the present picture is confidently signed by La Thangue in his early manner, supports the conjecture that this study could indeed masquerade as a costume-piece portrait.

We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for providing the above catalogue entry.

1 Kenneth McConkey, A Painter's Harvest, HH La Thangue, 1859-1929 , 1978 (exhibition catalogue, Oldham Art Gallery), p. 7. For La Thangue's recollections of his studies under Gérôme see George Thomson, 'Henry Herbert La Thangue and his Work', The Studio , vol IX, no. 45, December 1896.
2 Ibid, p. 18
3 See John Stokes, The French Actress and her English Audience , 2005, Cambridge University Press.