Image: LadyForbes-Leith,néeMaryLouiseJanuary

Description: Lady Forbes-Leith nee Mary Louise January (d 1930), three-quarter-length in white evening dress SGN & DATED, NY Francisque Edouard Bertier (b1840-1 Portrait of Marie Louisa January, Wife of Baron Leith of Fyvie Oil on canvas 1888 Francisque Edouard Bertier was a French artist, born in Paris in sometime 1840-41, and educated in the studios of Bourguereau and Cabanel. After achieving success in Paris, he visited America in 1886 upon the French ship Champagne. Bertier travelled in first class along with the celebrated portraitist Michel-Lleb Munkacsy (1844-1909) and his name is on the list of passengers. The artist went on a new journey to the United States three years later; according to the registers of immigration, “F-E Berthier, forty seven years old, French painter arrived in New York on October 21, 1889 on the Gascogne from Le Havre” (French translation). Bertier opened a studio in New York where he painted many portraits and genre subjects, and where his home was the centre of a refined social circle. He died upon his return to France (after 1900). Whether Bertier knew Alexander Forbes-Leith before he travelled to America is not known yet. One possible explanation is the artist met either Forbes-Leith or his wife in 1886 in the US and painted a portrait of Lady Forbes-Leith in 1888 either in the US or Europe (from the biographies it is not clear if Bertier returned to Europe in 1886, 87 or 88). He painted a second portrait of their son in 1890, when the artist was definitely in the US and in all likelihood before the Forbes-Leith family left the US and settled in their new home in Fyvie (sometime after 1889-1890). It is not known if Forbes-Leith travelled much to Fyvie in 1889-1890, as he was in the process of setting up the world’s biggest steel company.
Title: Lady Forbes-Leith
Credit: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/lady-forbes-leith-nee-mary-louise-january-d-1930-196526
Author: Francisque-Edouard Bertier
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
License: CC BY 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Attribution Required?: Yes