Marthe Orant
French, 1874 - 1957Désordre dans l’atelier (Disorder in the Studio), n.d.
Not on view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions76 3/4 × 51 1/4 in. (194.9 × 130.2 cm)
Museum purchase with funds donated by The Whiting Foundation, 2007.14
Born in 1874, Marthe Orant belonged to the first generation of painters who grew up with the influence of the Impressionist circle. She was a student of Pierre Bonnard and an apprentice to Édouard Vuillard, co-founders of the innovative Post-Impressionist group of painters known as the Nabis. Her interaction with this group of artists who were committed to creating work of a symbolic and spiritual nature had a profound impact on her art.
Throughout her career, Orant was a keen observer of daily life on Parisian streets, incisively portraying still-lifes of flowers and landscapes of the French countryside in a style that brought together all of her early influences. She showed regularly at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne, and was awarded the coveted Silver Medal at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris. Over a twenty-year period, the French government purchased several of her works.
