Artist in Her Studio

Camoin was a fellow student with Matisse and Marquet, in the Paris studio of Gustave Moreau. With them he took part in the historic Salon d'Automne of 1905, the exhibition that came to be called the Cage Aux Fauves ("Cage of Wild Beasts"), a term coined by the critic, Louis Vauxcelles. In this painting of 1905, Camoin's use of color was tamer than that of some of his colleagues, but he employed a characteristically flat, Fauvist style, combined with a dark outlining that paid homage to the cloissonisme of Gauguin.

Camoin was fond of painting portraits of fellow artists. Here he depicts Emilie Charmy's intense glance as she guides her brush to a canvas, recalling Colette's description of a "subtle brush . . . guided by a lucid passion."