Lot 102 at our first fine sale of 2018 is a fabulous portrait of ‘Sonia’ by the French artist Jean Gabriel Domergue.

Born in Bordeaux in 1889, Domergue went on to have an illustrious artistic career. At just age 17 he had works at the Salon Des Artistes Francais in 1906 and went on to win a Prix de Rome. He studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and it is here in Paris in the 1920’s that his career really began to take off.

Although his early notable works tended to be landscapes, it is his portraits from the 1920’s onwards that he is best known for.  He became a favourite of the upper-classes and the aristocracy and was commissioned to paint the portraits of many notable Parisian ladies of the time. He did not limit himself however to only the great and mighty, as he also painted many portraits of dancers and actresses, in varying degrees of undress.

Although we do not know the identity of ‘Sonia’ she is representative of Domergue’s painting women with long elegant features. He also contributed to fashion of the era, as can be seen with ‘Sonia’s’ hat, and even designed for couturiers like Paul Poiret.