JEAN-PAUL LAURENS (French 1838-1921)
Portrait of a Girl in Blue, circa 1880
Oil on canvas
16 3/8 by 11 1/2 inches
Inscribed offert a Tombola de/la creche/ JPL, (donated for the raffle of the children's school JPL) lower right
Italian 19th Century Venetian Frame

Jean-Paul Laurens taught his method of capturing an image with a freshness of color in quick, direct, painterly brushstrokes to generations of American painters at the Academie Julian in Paris. His technique is clearly seen in this charming likeness with its impish expression and the immediacy of the firmly defined, but quickly rendered hair. The work captures the essence of the child's personality with an energy that sustains the expressive quality of the paint.