French painter (1826-1900). Autograph carte de visite signed. Paris. 50 x 95 mm.
$ 209 / 180 €
(88385/BN58227)
Note on a carte de visite thanking a female friend for her hospitality: "Madame. Je vous envie mes souhaites les meilleurs pour vous et les votres. Heureux d'avoir été leurs dans un si noble maison" ("Madame, I send you my best wishes to your and your family. Happy to have been your guest in such a noble house"). - Valadon was a French portrait and still life painter who was part of the French school and post-impressionism movement. His paintings are exhibited in major museums and galleries, most notably the Louvre.
He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was influenced by Michel Martin Drolling, Leon Cogniet, and Henri Lehrmann. He first exhibited at the "Salon de peinture et de sculpture" in Paris in 1857. Poet Auguste Dorchain considered him to be the Chardin of his time. - Politically, Valadon was close to his sponsor in the "Legion of Honour", poet and novelist François Coppée, who was engaged in the fight against Alfred Dreyfus in the Dreyfus affair and founded the "Ligue de la patrie Française" that attacked Émile Zola as a socialist conspirator. Valadon also signed the anti-Dreyfus manifesto..