The Fitzwilliam Museum buys a painting by Edme-Adolphe Fontaine

30/9/24 - Acquisition - Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum - The mise en abyme is multiple: there are several paintings within the painting and even several portraits within the portrait. Edme-Alphonse Fontaine’s Workshop Interior has joined the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, having been purchased from Elliott Fine Art. The work had previously been sold in Quimper on 26 March 2024.
The artist represented his daughter, Marie-Claire Fontaine, emphasising her status as a professional painter: he depicted her in front of her canvas, wearing an apron, the light from the window modulated by a large drapery. The studio was also a way for women to learn to paint, at a time when they had no access to the Académie. She is painting a young woman sitting impassively on a chair;…