Paul-François Quinsac

Harry B. Richmond, Boston, c.1920

Thence by descent

Original canvas preparer's stamp on reverse.

It is 1891 in Quinsac’s studio. The hub of experimentation and creativity, the studio broadcasts a bountiful array of colorful props. Sumptuous exotic fabrics are hastily strewn among unfinished canvases. Easels and mirrors tangle with disparate pieces of furniture. These commingled objects comprise the belly of the artist’s space. The Japoniste parasol in the upper left and the corresponding fan below reveal the far-reaching influence of the Japanese aesthetic in French art. In the center of this flux is the seductive model, pivotal to the artistic enterprise, seated disrobed amid the artist’s clutter.

Quinsac demystifies the work of art by revealing its artifice. Before the model is transformed into a historical heroine, mythological goddess or allegory, she is captured in a moment of spontaneous, non-glorified repose. Unattached to nature, this contemporary working model looks unabashedly at the viewer/artist, balancing her cigarette in her right hand as though caught unaware. The apparent impact of the photographic medium materializes in the current composition, as the artist fabricates a fleeting moment, a snapshot between drags of a cigarette.

The mechanics of painting are revealed to the viewer in a fashion less literal than Quinsac’s teacher Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose The Artist and His Model circa 1890-1893, reveals the more traditional rendering of the theme. The relationship between artist and model is clearly restricted to the crafting of the marble. Alternatively, the dynamics of the artist/model relationship in Quinsac’s work appear rather nebulous. Although the artist does not physically appear within the scene, his presence is ostensibly understood. The table in the foreground is set for two, along with a pair of aperitif glasses that accompany the afternoon snack. His empty glass rests idly in the right foreground ready to be refilled from the nearby bottle, while the model waits for the moment of inspiration to pass, so as to finish her smoke with the accompanying libation.