Unpinned - early paintings of Jean-Gabriel Domergue

Élégante à l'éventail, 1919.

Jean-Gabriel Domergue (4 March 1889, Bordeaux - 16 November 1962, Paris), French painter specializing in - often very erotic - fantasy portraits of Parisian women. Domergue was born in Bordeaux and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1906, at the age of seventeen, he exhibited works at the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1913, he was awarded the second prize in the Prix de Rome and went on to win the gold medal in 1920. Having first been recognized for his landscapes, his career took a decisive turn during the 1920’s. From that time onward he concentrated on portraits, most of his clientele from among the aristocracy and high society. And with the erotic portraits of a generic "parisienne" for which he is most famous, he claimed to be the inventor of "the pin-up". From 1955 until 1962 he was the curator of the Musée Jacquemart-André, organising exhibitions of the works of Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Goya, and others. He was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and Fellow of the Academy of Fine Arts. He died in Paris at the age of seventy-three.

Portrait of Fernande Cabanel, 1920.

Élégante aux plumes, 1920.

Le Rouge à lèvres, 1918 or 1919.

Trois baigneuses à la boule fleurie, 1931.

À l'ombre d'une jeune fille en fleur, 1922.

Le Peintre et ses modèles, 1931.

The beautiful figure here must certainly be that of Joséphine Baker; the artist painted her on several occasions.

Woman in Black in Venice, 1919.

Femme en noire, 1919.

Elegant Venetian Lady with a Cigarette (Princess Ruspoli), 1918.

Couple dans une gondole au clair de lune, 1913.

Versailles, élégante près du bassin, 1916.

Study for the above painting.

Vénitienne au Châle, 1919.

Design for a fan, 1921.

Portrait of Mlle. Spinelly, used as cover art for an issue of L'Illustration, 1922.

Advertisement, 1928.

Portrait of the comtesse du Bourg de Bozas, used in an advertisement for Cadillac, 1928.

Portrait de Madame O, reproduced in L'Illustration, 1928.

Portrait of Madame O'Deril, 1930.

Le Carosse, ou La Princesse Ruspoli au carrosse, 1920.

 Eve Looking in the Mirror, circa 1920.

Femme aux lévriers (Woman with greyhounds, though, as mentioned elsewhere, they are actually borzois), 1930.

And then, how about a very close variation on the same painting?

Poster for the Russian ballet dancers Vronska and Alperoff (Alice Vronska and Konstantin Alperov), 1923.

Poster for dancer Emmy Magliani, 1923.

 La belle Espagnole, 1926.