Girl with a Sunshade by Jules Bastien-Lepage

Evoking the charm and elegance of urban and bourgeois life, this painting bears witness to the artist’s stays across the Channel. The great master Jules Bastien-Lepage captures here feminine grace in the middle of a green setting in the work named “Girl with a Sunshade”. The transition to more fashionable subjects retains all the freshness and truth characteristic of his aesthetic vision. This creation celebrates the coquetry and refinement of high society.

A charming young woman with auburn hair sits facing forward on a wicker chair in a flower garden. She sketches a sweet smile, sheltered under a large dark umbrella with golden reflections that she holds firmly. Her outfit consists of a fitted black jacket with white lapels and a long, voluminous skirt of a delicate lavender blue. Behind her bursts a bed of roses and multicolored flowers in pink, yellow, and red tones. The sandy ground is strewn with fallen petals, adding to the poetry of the decor. The spring light illuminates her bright and radiant face.

The technical virtuosity bursts forth in the fluid and almost impressionistic treatment of the fabrics and the surrounding footage. The artist restores the shimmering of colors and the lightness of fabrics with prodigious dexterity. This painting demonstrates an absolute mastery of color and exterior luminosity.