02 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #194

Virginie Demont-Breton, 1859-1935, FRENCH

FEMME DE PÊCHEUR VENANT DE BAIGNER SES ENFANTS/ FISHERMAN'S  WIFE COMING TO BATH HER CHILDREN, c. 1881

Oil on canvas 

80 by 49 3/4 in., 203.2 by 126.4 cm

Private collection

Virginie Élodie Marie Thérèse Demont-Breton (26 July 1859, Courrières – 10 January 1935, Paris) was a French painter.

Her artistic career got off to an early start due to her having family ties with painters. By the age of twenty, she was exhibiting at the Salon where she received an Honorable Mentions and, four years later, she won a Gold Medal at the Amsterdam Exposition.

She served as President of the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors from 1895 to 1901, though she resigned for a short period of time in 1892 due to a disagreement between her and the Union’s community over what she saw as their unfair methods of voting. She worked with Hélène Bertaux in her effort to open the École des Beaux-Arts to women students; a goal which was achieved in 1897. She was the second woman to be decorated with the Légion d'honneur - the first woman being her mentor Rosa Bonheur, and became an Officer in 1914. The previous year, she had been elected to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) in 1913

Originally, she painted portraits and historical scenes but, after moving to Wissant, switched to painting the fishermen and their families in a Realistic style. In 1889, Vincent van Gogh painted his own version of one of her works, "L’Homme Est en Mer" (Her Man is Out to Sea). She also painted scenes of motherhood and children that depict mothers in strong and powerful imagery within nature. More on Virginie Élodie Marie Thérèse Demont-Breton

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