Genf 1889 - 1954 Genf

Madeleine ou Madou

1917, Signed upper right "M Barraud 17". Verso: "Maurice Barraud. "La Madou" ou Madelein 1917"

35.5 : 31 cm

The present sheet shows the portrait of a young girl in half profile, turned slightly to the left. The model wears a simple black dress, and her light blonde hair falls in a short cut over the white collar. The depiction is closely framed and focuses on the head and upper body. The background is deliberately left without detail, allowing the figure to stand clearly in the foreground. The pastel and gouache technique creates soft transitions, particularly in the face, and corresponds to Barraud’s manner of working in his works on paper from the years 1914–1917. The closed, calm character of the portrait is typical of the series of girls’ portraits that Barraud produced repeatedly during these years. He often employed simple, direct compositions to emphasise the features of his models without incorporating narrative elements. The inscription on the reverse with the variants “La Madou” corresponds to the occasional multiple naming “Madeleine” of his models. Although the sheet is not listed in the Oeuvre Raisonné by Michel Reymondin, it fits stylistically and technically in a coherent way into his documented early work. The identity of the model corresponds to the girl depicted in a related oil painting by Barraud, which was sold at auction on 6 November 2015 under the title La Gosse (titled Mado). The consistency of the facial features suggests that Barraud painted this model repeatedly over a certain period. This corresponds to his known practice of portraying individual models both in oil and in pastel. The work is a well-preserved example of Barraud’s early portrait drawings on paper, which appear on the market less frequently than his later oil paintings, yet are essential for understanding his development as a portraitist.