Jean-Gabriel Domergue artwork • watercolour • drawing • previously for sale Agnes in a white blouse

The French painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue was a pupil of Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and became famous as a portrait painter of well-groomed women and graceful nudes. He also made name as a designer of Art Deco posters with elegant women as an eye catcher. Nadine Lhopitalier, acress and later wife of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, modelled for him for a long time. Before Domergue devoted himself to this subject, he had been painting for twenty years. His main theme was the landscape, with beach scenes as his favorite. As of 1927 the artist lived in Cannes, where he played an active role in the cultural life and found wealthy clientele for his female portraits. Here he had the Villa Fiesole (later: Villa Domergue) built in 1934, where many celebrities, among whom Gina Lollobrigida and Brigitte Bardot, came to pose.