Le petit déjeuner

Purser, Sarah Henrietta (1848-1943)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1881

Height:

35.0 cm  (13 3/4 in.)

Width:

27.0 cm  (10 5/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Description

The dancer, Maria Feller, is seated on a bentwood chair. She wears an outdoor dress, a jacket and a jabot, blue skirt and brown bonnet with ribbons.

People as subjects

Feller, Maria (Dancer)

Image URLs

image link 1

Notes

The subject of 'Le Petit Dejeuner' is the dancer Maria Feller, who was the daughter of an Italian count and a dancer. Feller had been a voice and music student in Paris, and for a period shared an apartment with Sarah Purser and the Swiss artists, Louise Breslau and Sophie Schoppi. This portrait was executed during the summer of 1881, at a time when Feller was teaching music. She is shown seated on a bent-wood chair wearing an outdoor dress, a green-grey jacket with a white lace jabot, blue skirt and brown bonnet tied with white ribbons. Although full of detail, nothing in the picture distracts the viewer's attention from the woman's pensive expression. On the marble table her croissant and breakfast drink remained untouched. The theme of young women looking moody was tackled by other artistsof the day. Feller's 'ennui' is reminiscent of a number of genre portraits by Degas, an artist Purser greatly admired. Purser studied in Paris at the atelier Julian, and subsequently pursued a career as a portraitist. She also became involved in numerous cultural activities: she founded 'An Túr Gloine', a stained-glass co-operative workshop (1903-1943), and was a driving force behind establishment of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art and the Friends of the National Collections (National Gallery of Ireland: Essential Guide, 2008).

RIdIM record id

3230