Camille Jacques François CLERE
 (Anzin, 1825 – Paris, 1919)

 Domenica
 Oil on panel
 Signed and dated lower left
 27 x 21 cm
 1865

 A pupil of Cogniet at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which he entered in 1847, Clere made his debut at the Paris Salon of 1848. He won second prize at the Rome competition in 1855 with César dans la barque.

 The artist then travelled to Rome, where he was a member of the group of French artists created in 1861 and called the Caldarrosti. It was probably on his return from his Italian journey that Clere painted, from a drawing taken on location, our young Italian woman called Domenica. The artist clearly extended his journey to Naples and its surroundings; the hairstyle that our model presents is Neapolitan. It was also by sending Neapolitan paintings that Clere began his cycle of Italian paintings at the Salon of Paris and the provinces. Indeed, in 1859, he sent Young Peasant Women from the Countryside of Naples. The artist exhibited his last Italian subject in Paris in 1868, before concentrating only on portraits, the last of which was presented in 1904.

 It should be noted that Clere exhibited several ethnographic paintings of the same type as the one presented here at the Salons de Lyon, such as Pasaccia, Michelina (1867), Pascuccia-Ciociara (1873) and Pasqua-Maria (1874).

 Clere was also regularly received and rewarded in provincial Salons such as Nantes (Gold Medal in 1862), Rouen (Bronze Medal in 1866), Le Havre…

 Museums : Cambrai, Douai, Anzin, Valenciennes…