The Chinese Gown. 1890-1894.
Théodore Roussel
* 1847 in Lorient † 1926 in Hastings
Transfer Lithograph. Size of sheet: 34.6 x 25.5 cm.
Literature: Hausberg 170.
Inscribed in pencil on the verso L.2. Total printing about 20 impressions.
This study of Hetty Pettigrew is thought to have been drawn by lamplight, as were several other lithographs.
Born in Portsmouth in 1867, Harriet, or Hetty, was the oldest of the three Pettigrew sisters, who became professional artist’s models after they moved to London in 1884 from the West Country. Hetty was Theodore Roussel's model since the early 1880s, and by the early 1890s was living with her two sisters in Fulham, not far from the artist's home on Parson's Green (Hausberg, p. 107). Hetty was not just Roussel's model; she was her studio assistant, possibly her pupil, and also his mistress, giving birth to their child Iris around 1900.
£ 550.-