Louis Welden Hawkins (1849 - 1910)
The Actress Louise Silvain as Monime
Watercolor gouache
11 ³/₈ x 11 ¹/₄ inches (29 x 28.5 cm)
Signed and dated 1906, in its original frame designed by the artist
Provenance:
Eugène-Charles-Joseph Silvain (1851-1930), husband of the model.
Jeann-Louise-Pauline Silvain (1892-1983), his daughter.
By descent
Sale, Ader, Paris, March 23, 2023, lot 263
Exhibition:
Paris, 1906, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, no. 652
Literature:
M. Guillemot, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. XVIe exposition, L'Art et les artistes, tome III, April-September 1906, p. 118
Against a scarlet background, Monime, a legendary Greek beauty, faces the viewer wearing pearls and a royal diadem, a gift from her husband King Mithridates VI of Pontus.
Monime's frontal pose and wide-eyed stare recalls the Byzantine mosaics of Empress Théodora in S. Vitale, Ravenna (547 A.D).
The actress, born Louise-Julie-Marthe Hartman, was the wife of the actor Eugène Silvain. She entered the Comédie-Française in 1901 and became a member in 1910. She interpreted the classics and triumphed in 1907 in the role of Electra of Sophocles.
Hawkins exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Indépendents, the Libre Esthetique de Bruxelles and the Salon de la Rose-Croix. Several memorable pastels by Hawkins are in the Musée d'Orsay.