Portrait of Madame Champsaur

Schuffenecker was born in Alsace and studied under Paul Baudry (1828-1886) before taking evening classes with Carolus-Duran (1837-1917) and at the Academie Suisse in Paris. He met and befriended Gauguin in 1872 at the brokerage firm of Bertin. Not only was he responsible for the historic meeting of Bernard and Gauguin in Pont-Aven in 1886, but he also organised the Pont-Aven group’s first exhibition at Cafe Volpini in Paris in 1889. This work depicts the wife of Felicien Champsaur, a late 19th-century novelist. The portrait gives an impression of refinement, with Madame Champsaur in elegant city clothing decorated with Breton-style embroidery. The reference to Rodin’s sculpture Succube (The Succubus) evokes the female demon with the power to seduce men.