Alphonsine DE CHALLIÉ (1858-1904) ✿

Alphonsine de Challié (1858 - 1904) was a French artist born at the Château de Gaultret in Deux-Sèvres. She grew up in a family of intellectuals who cared about artistic education and encouraged her drawing skills as well as her sister Laurence's talents as a pianist. Her father Édouard de Challié was a naval officer and South Seas backpacker, while her mother Laure de Jussieu was a writer. She has published various works on morality crowned by the Institute and which have earned her great notoriety.

Jeune femme brune au voile rose à sa toilette/Young lady with a pink veil - Huile sur toile

Alphonsine studied painting with Charles Chaplin in one of the first atelier reserved for women, she was one of the first female artists to work in a studio notably frequented by Mary Cassatt, Louise Abbéma and Madeleine Lemaire. True to her master's reputation as an intimate painter, Alphonsine de Challié excels in the production of female portraits.

In contact with the painters of her time, she befriended Berthe Morisot who painted Woman at her toilet in 1875, a work substantially close to ours and preserved today at the Art Institute of Chicago. She exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français between 1878 and 1882 where she mainly presented portraits.

His niece Gabrièle, art critic, writer and musician will marry Francis Picabia in 1909 and his nephew Jean will follow his encouragement to become a painter. He attended Gérôme's studio at the Beaux-Arts then shared a studio with Picasso, Léger and Dufy before settling in Etival.

It is in this town in the Jura that the Challié family retains its family ties. Alphonsine de Challié bought the old chapel of the Annunciation there - which had become a barn - at the turn of the century and settled there after major works until her death. This chapel is adjacent to the Buffet-Picabia family home where Marcel Duchamp and Guillaume Apollinaire would later visit.