Jean-Gabriel Domergue
1889-1962 | French

La loge

Signed (bottom right)
Oil on panel

Jean-Gabriel Domergue presents an elegantly seductive woman seated in a loge in this vibrantly-hued oil portrait. Depicted with her eyes gazing from beneath a gauzy polka-dot veil, his auburn-haired sitter embodies the youth, vitality and sophistication Domergue’s compositions are known for. The woman is exceedingly poised, focused on the performance, her brightly rouged lips parted in concentration. A well-heeled man sits beside her, peering into opera glasses. The slender, modern woman of La loge exudes confidence and style, displaying the qualities of Domergue's work that earned him the reputation of “inventor of the pin-up.”

Born in Bordeaux in 1889, Domergue studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He was only 17 years old when he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français for the first time, winning the Prix du Rome in 1911 and a gold medal in 1920. While landscapes dominated his early oeuvre, from the 1920s he changed his focus to what would become his trademark subject, la belle Parisienne. Domergue enjoyed a tremendously successful career. From 1955 until 1962 he was the curator of the Musée Jacquemart-André, organizing exhibitions of the works of van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Goya, among others. Domergue was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur and also served as a Fellow of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Early 20th century