Master Art

The present sheet may have been intended as a design for a book cover, although if so, it never seems to have come to fruition. The pair of peacocks at the upper left of the composition appear to derive from the form of a peacock comb designed by the glass and jewelry designer René Lalique in c.1897-1898, an example of which is in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

The ‘Juliette Thierry’ mentioned in this drawing may conceivably be identified with the artist who, in 1901, won a first prize and an honourable mention in the 'cours de jeunes filles' section of the Ecole regionale des Beaux-Arts in Rennes. Two years later, in the Courrier de Rennes newspaper of 20 June 1903, it was noted that ‘Mlle. Juliette Thierry, dessinateur, élève de notre école’ had won an honorable mention in the 13th annual nationwide concours de composition decorative, organized under the auspices of the Société d’Encouragement à l’Art et à l’Industrie.

This drawing was included in the recent exhibition 'Mathurin Méheut: brodeur d’images', held at the Musée Mathurin Méheut in Lamballe and the and the Musée Bigouden in Pont-l’Abbe in 2016.