SOLDOil on Panel, 10 x 14 in. (25.3 x 35.5 cm)
Provenance: directly from Gorden Anderson (around 2000), who inherited the painting from his partner, Willy de Belleroche, Alberts son (around 1968).
Tags: Albert de Belleroche oil panel landscape seascapes and skyscapes Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) - A Private Collection
Provenance: directly from Gorden Anderson (around 2000), who inherited the painting from his partner, Willy de Belleroche, Alberts son (around 1968).
Although born in Wales, he was the son of the Marquis de Belleroche, of
one of the most ancient French noble families who, being Huguenots, had
fled to England in 1685. In 1871, following the death of his father, he
moved back to Paris with his family. After he had finished school there,
he studied at the studio of Carolus Duran, and spent long hours copying
at the Paris museums. He soon became familiar with the leading painters
and intellectuals of the day, and became a founder member of the Salon
d'Automne, exhibiting alongside the Impressionists and associating with
Emile Zola, Oscar Wilde, Albert Moore, Renoir, Degas, Helleu and
Toulouse-Lautrec. Toulouse-Lautrec and Belleroche were exact
contemporaries, who first met at the age of eighteen. Belleroche painted
Toulouse-Lautrec's portrait and shared with him a passion for the model
Lili, who epitomised the Belle Epoch aesthetic of Toulouse-Lautrec's
most celebrated posters. Lili became Belleroche's favourite model and
mistress. In 1882 Belleroche also met the already acclaimed American
painter John Singer Sargent, who recognised Belleroche's talent and
empathised with his free drawing style and sensitivity to light. They
became life-long friends. Sargent's handling of pastel was a great
inspiration to Belleroche, while Belleroche's sensitivity to tone and
creation of form through the modeling of light exerted a strong
influence on Sargent. In 1900, Belleroche became fascinated by the
medium of lithography and by 1905 he was a leading figure in the field
of lithographic portraiture. A.M. Hind, a former keeper of prints at the
British Museum, described his works in lithography as "amongst the
greatest achievements of the craft since its discovery."
He held commercial exhibitions at the Goupil Gallery (1903), Graves,
London (1906), Colnaghi's (1941) and Walker Gallery, London (1942). As
however he had no need to live from his art, he rarely took on
commissioned portraits, instead choosing models and sitters who
interested him. This in part - though not entirely - explains why he is
so little known. A room in the Musée D'Orange is dedicated to
Belleroche. He was the subject of numerous publications during his
lifetime, and in 2001 the San Diego Museum of Art organised an
exhibition and produced a catalogue entitled The Rival of Painting: the
Lithographs of Albert Belleroche.
