De Belay – Woman in Profile with Hat

Pierre de Belay
(1890 Quimper – 1947 Ostend

WOMAN IN PROFILE WITH HAT

Wax crayon on paper, mounted on cardboard, 32 x 23.3 cm
Signed and dated lower right: Pierre de Belay 1934, inscribed on the reverse: Pierre de Belay, Portrait de femme, 1934, crayon gras

Provenance:
Estate of the artist; Hélène de Belay; Roland & Denise Souëf Collection

Pierre de Belay was a masterful portraitist who caused a sensation as a child in Quimper with portraits of the city’s dignitaries. At the age of 15, the painter and writer Max Jacob, a friend of the family, took him to Paris for the first time and introduced him to Picasso, Apollinaire and the other artists of the Bateau-lavoir. In 1919, he moved to Paris permanently, enjoyed the Années folles, the turbulent 1920s, with his wife Hélène, and painted nostalgic views of Montmartre, which can be admired at the Musée du Montmartre, among other places, and increasingly café and bar scenes from Montparnasse. As he loved to observe passers-by and sketch them quickly on paper, he was very happy to work for the art and theatre magazine Arlequin, for which he illustrated the column ‘Paris qui soupe et dîne’ between 1923 and 1926. Strolling through the streets of the city, he became the chronicler of the 1920s. The beautiful woman with the hat in profile caught his eye. No wonder.