Jean Gabriel Domergue
(Bordeaux 1889 – Paris 1962)
Élégante Dans Un Café
Signed lower left
Gouache and watercolour on paper laid down on cardboard, 78.7 x 56.6 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, Germany, acquired from the above by the present owner in 2008
Note:
With a painterly brush, Jean-Gabriel Domergue defined new possibilities for female representation, depicting glamorous, modern, post-war femininity. His portraits of chic and lavishly adorned women epitomise the joie de vivre which permeated Paris after the First World War. These sought-after paintings of the high-society women reflect a world of sumptuousness and celebrity.

This painting is a fine example of Domergue’s fascination with the subject of society life and parties, which he explored throughout his career: “Parties allow one to live beyond the confines of time, beyond the ordinary… A clean break from everyday life where, for a few hours, everyone becomes ‘another’ and can live without constraint.”