1840 Oil Painting of Woman by Esperance Langlois

An attractive oil on canvas painting of a young woman by the famous 19th century French female artist Esperance Langlois.

The painting shows the subject seated, looking up from reading her Holy Bible (in Latin). She is wearing a silver grey dress with a black sash belt and shawl. Her hair is curly. She is wearing a necklace with a black pendant or locket. The painting is signed in fine red E. Langlois 1840. The painting is on a stretcher and has been mounted in a gilded wooden frame. We are also selling separately, the preparatory study of the painting, a highly detailed charcoal drawing of the woman. The drawing is also signed and dated. Condition is good, with bruising to the frame.

Louise Marguerite Espérance Langlois (1805 - 1864) was a French painter and printmaker. From her marriage, she was also known as Espérance Bourlet de la Vallée. She was born at Pont-de-l'Arche in Normandy. Her father was the artist and antiquarian Eustache-Hyacinthe Langlois. Throughout her childhood the family lived in great poverty, first in Pont-de-l'Arche and after 1816 in Rouen, while her father struggled to live by selling his work. These included drawings of old architecture and gothic-style illustrations of legends, which are now quite highly prized. In 1834 the Rouen Academy of Fine Arts awarded her a silver medal for her art. Espérance was later employed for several years as a painter by the Sèvres porcelain factory and her artwork was shown at many exhibitions of industrial art in France and England. Her paintings now often fetch thousands.

Size picture: 21.5 x 27 cm (8 ½ x 10 5/8 inches)
Size frame: 30.5 x 35.5 x 2 cm (12 x 14 x ¾ inches)
Weight: 624 g