Georges Lemmen (1865-1916)

In 1906, Galerie Druet staged Lemmen's first solo exhibition in Paris as the artist's intimiste style, very much in the tradition of Vuillard, was beginning to enjoy increasing popularity. The handlist for that show records a work entitled Endormie as having been exhibited and it seems likely that the present work was that picture. However, the existence of another picture similar to the present work, which was exhibited at the Musée d'Ixelles in 1997, means that we cannot be certain of the 1906 picture.

The present work represents Lemmen's wife. The artists's family was a recurring motif in his career, particularly as the intimiste idiom Lemmen favoured leant itself to the depiction of modest, undemonstrative family gatherings. Endormie or La sieste, with its languorous subject and richly coloured setting, embodies both the subtleties and strengths of Lemmen's art.