[A Miller's wife].

Drawing, charcoal and white chalk, 61,2 x 46 cm, laid paper, signed at lower left corner (sm. repairs, some foxing).

A woman proudly posing next to the wheel of a mill. A rare example of rustic realism in the oeuvre of Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889), one of the major leading figures of the French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. He was the preferred painter of Napoleon III, and taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1864 until his death. "He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred at the Salons. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation in forming the character of belle époque French painting" (Dictionary of Art 1995, pp. 341-44).