REGAMEY Frederic
 (Paris, 1849 – Paris, 1925)
 The studio of the painter Jules MACHARD in 1887

 Pastel
 Signed and dated 1887 lower right
 32 x 24 cm

 Exhibition :
  
 Paris Salon of 1888 under number 3526
Our drawing is one of the nine pastel studies that Regamey exhibited at the 1888 Salon under the same No. 3526, and which were used to illustrate the book "Les peintres de la femme" (also published in 1888) by Claude Vento (pseudonym of Alice de Laincel Vento, 1853-1924, chatelaine of Suze, collector and writer who enjoyed some success).

 In addition to Machard's, the eight other painters' studios represented were those of: Joseph Wencker, Carolus-Duran, Charles Chaplin, Alexandre Cabanel, Jean-Jacques Henner, Gaston Saint-Pierre, Jules Lefebvre and Léon Bonnat.

 The drawings were to be presented in the same frame, as indicated by the commentary of François Bournand (director of the Paris-Salon and editor-in-chief of "Blanc et Noir") in the "Feu Follet", who describes as "very interesting and much admired the frame by M. Regamey containing views of the studios of nine painters".

 The Jura native Jules-Louis Machard (1839, Sampans – 1900, Meudon), a student of the religious and history painter Emile Signol (1804-1892) and the Dauphiné academician Ernest Hebert (1817-1908), won the Prix de Rome in 1865 with Orphée aux enfers, and stayed in Rome from 1866 to 1874. A wise representative of academicism, Machard was particularly renowned for his portraits of women (he is said to have produced more than 300 portraits during his career), his nudes or his allegorical and mythological scenes, while also painting rare religious subjects (such as those commissioned by the Marquis de Chennevières, then director of Fine Arts).

 Regamey's pastel very faithfully represents Machard and the organization of his workshop, as can be seen in black and white photographs of the workshop by Edmond Bernard and Adolphe Giraudon, dating from the same period.

 We can recognize in particular the large chandelier inspired by rococo, the hangings adorning the back wall. The paintings hanging on this same wall are arranged identically. In front of the wall hanging, placed on a Louis XIII style cupboard, we can identify a portrait of a Mandolin Player, recently sold to the public, which is hanging on an opposite wall of the studio in another photo. We also find a Naked Woman from behind with a child. The painting on the far right, the second from the top, could be that of a Young Girl in Red Fur kept at the Dole museum. Regamey's pastel also tells us about the colors of the Persian carpet, probably a Senneh kilim, near the bed on which Machard is sitting, and which, in one of the photos, is under the piano stool on which the artist's wife (Ernestine Aléo, of Cuban origin, married in 1875) is sitting.

 Of Swiss origin, the youngest of his painter brothers Guillaume (1837-1875) and Félix (1844-1907), Frédéric Regamey was essentially a draftsman and illustrator, who specialized in depictions of the social life of his time, and sports scenes, notably fencing, a discipline in which he himself excelled. He nevertheless produced paintings on the subject of contemporary French history. From 1898, Regamey lived mainly in Alsace, the region of origin of his wife Jeanne, and he devoted himself to illustrating books with a regionalist theme.

 In 1888, Frédéric Regamey was living in Paris at 35, rue Rousselet, in the current 7th arrondissement.

 Museums : Louvre, Orsay, Versailles, Strasbourg, Colmar…