Louise Amans Portrait of a North African

Louise Amans
Swiss
1860 - 1897
Portrait of a North African

signed LAmans upper left
oil on canvas
Unframed: 61 by 50cm., 24 by 19¾in.
Framed: 79 by 68cm., 31 by 26¾in.

Condition Report:
The canvas has not been lined. There is some faint craquelure to the background, visible upon close inspection, otherwise the work is in good condition, ready to hang. Examination under ultra-violet light reveals scattered retouching to the edges and some minor scattered infilling to the background. There does not appear to be any retouching to the figure, however an uneven varnish obscures further reading.

Catalogue Note:
Louise Amans was born in Basel, Switzerland, to French parents. She studied at Académie Julian in Paris, the only school where women artists could access the same teaching as men. There she was taught by Benjamin Constant, Jean-Paul Laurens and Jules Lefebvre. She exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon in 1889, then at the first Swiss National Fine Arts Exhibition in Bern in 1890. Her works were frequently exhibited in Paris, Bern and Basel.

Amans was an accomplished portraitist, as well as a marine and still life painter. She returned to Basel in 1895 and moved in with the Belgian artist Augusta Roszmann, whom she had met at the Académie Julian. She sadly died at the young age of 37. Her work is honoured at the Fine Arts Museum Basel, where an entire room is dedicated to her work.