H: 79 cm W: 74 cm (with frame)

Madeleine Berly-Vlaminck ( 1896-1953)

 Born in 1876, Maurice de Vlaminck signed his first paintings in 1893. In 1896, he married Suzanne Berly and had three daughters, including Madeleine, the eldest. Self-taught, he refused to learn by copying in museums so as not to lose or dull his inspiration. Vlaminck influenced the artistic choices of his daughter. The status of a woman artist at the end of the 19th century was still very difficult to maintain. Art schools had just opened to them and still with restrictions. It was in this atmosphere that Madeleine was born. She was to be called Berly, after her mother, so as not to have to suffer the heavy paternal heritage. Exposed from 1914 by the famous art dealer Paul Guillaume, she seems to stop painting after her marriage to Theodore Ruchon, and settles in Jaudrais near Chartres. After the death of her husband at the Liberation, she moved closer to her father and lived in Reuil-La-Gadelière. She continued to paint occasionally until her death. If the number of women painters is more and more numerous after the First World War, it is nevertheless rare that they are mentioned in the artistic literature. Known and recognized in their circle, they remain mostly unknown to the general public. The extraordinary contacts that surrounded Madeleine Berly did not propel her to the forefront, but contributed to her humility. Madeleine Berly followed some of her father's advice. He communicated to her the strength of nature, the unconventional way of seeing things, all of which is felt in her very structured expression, going beyond fashion and making her painting a timeless work, the prerogative of true artists. Unlike her father, Madeleine was interested in faces, and even took hold of them to restructure them in her own way. Far from seeking resemblance, she redraws the faces by using a certain cubism, but light, as spontaneous as possible, the whole enhanced by alliances of pure and vivid colors, as we can see it on her works.

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