Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Silvain (1892-1983), bust-length

A fine example of Louis Welden Hawkins’s refined draughtsmanship, the present work shows French actress Jeanne-Louise-Pauline Silvain (1892-1983), at the age of around seventeen. Born into a theatrical family, she was the daughter of Eugène Silvain and Louise Silvain, both of whom were noted actors at the Comédie-Française, and the sister of the playwright Jean Silvain. In 1916 Jeanne married the actor, theatre director and Resistance fighter Edmond Roze (1878-1943). After his death at Auschwitz she married Alvin David Laidley, who worked for UNESCO in Paris.