Oil on canvas
Annotated on the back by Philippe Rouart "Miss Yvonne Lerolle (wife Eug. Rouart) by Maurice Denis P. Rouart"
h: 49 w: 34 cm
Claire Denis indicates in her
certificate: "This theme knows a first version
from 1892 (Girl with her toilet, 892.0049) and will be included in a decorative frieze for a bedroom, for Siegfried Bing in 1895 (Young girl
to his toilet (for Bing) 895.9202), a panel of which will join the Mithouard collection. [...]
It seems impossible that Denis had a portrait of Yvonne nude (she was born in 1877, she would have been 18). All studies and portraits of Yvonne that
we know are very clothed, and her hair is very wavy.
In addition, Henry Lerolle writes to Maurice Denis on May 3, 1924 (the painter is trying to collect paintings for his retrospective exhibition of 1924):
"I also have a little girl at her dress, which seems to me much prettier than that of Jeanne Mithouard." If it had been his daughter, he would have obviously said.
So we do not maintain the hypothesis that it could be a portrait of Yvonne. "
Oil on canvas; annotated by P. Rouart on the reverse
19 1/4 x 13 3/8 in.