Edgar Maxence and St. Thérèse de Lisieux (detail)

'St. Thérèse de Lisieux' (1931) by Edgar Maxence; no location found

It happens quite often that I struggle to come up with a painting to post one day, and the other day I have problems choosing between two or more painters. On a fortunate day, after having chosen the painter, it can still leave me with some difficulty to choose just one painting. After a couple of days of struggling, today was such a day. I checked out the paintings of the first painter on my list, Edgar Maxence, and immediately liked them a lot. I should have stopped right there but then looked at the paintings of the next painter on my list, Robert Vonnoh, and I liked his paintings as well. To avoid frustration discovering more painters suitable for today, I stopped looking and decided to choose between these two painters. Actually, I felt more like posting a painting by Edgar Maxence because his work is really beautiful. Both painters have their date of birth on the 17th of September. But I couldn't find an exact date of death for Maxence while Vonnoh's is still coming up in December. So I will leave Vonnoh for December and am extremely pleased to introduce you to the art of Edgar Maxence, born on 17 September 1871. He was a French Symbolist painter, a student of Elie Delaunay and Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon from 1894. He is a painter of portraits, still lifes and landscapes but perhaps best remembered for his paintings with subjects taken from the bible or ancient legends. His style is influenced by early Italian Renaissance and late Pre-Raphaelite art. He often enriched his work with gold and silver foil. Amongst his best-known paintings are Girl with a Peacock and The Soul of the Forest (which is exquisite!). I struggled with choosing just one painting for today and could have chosen Sérénité or Portrait of a Young Girl or the beautiful The Missal, but I couldn't tear myself away from the painting that I háve chosen. It's a portrait of the Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and I think it's absolutely beautiful. This is a detail, click here for the complete artwork. Unfortunately it's not very large nor clear. Click here for the detail and complete artwork next to each other.