Alexandre Bida

Edmonde Charles-Roux (1920-2016 ; a French writer famous for her contributions to Paris Vogue, of which she became editor-in-chief in 1965; and for her novel To Forget Palermo (1966)) 

Saint-Cloud, Musée des Avelines, Henri Regnault, le sabre et le pinceau, 2025

Alexandre Bida was a pupil of Eugène Delacroix. An accomplished draughtsman, his drawings often served as studies for engravings by other artists, notably his contemporary and fellow Orientalist Jules Laurens. The model in the present work appears identically seated in a composition engraved by Laurens and published as a plate in his travel album Voyage en Turquie et en Perse (1854-1860), depicting portraits of Turks and Greeks of Rumelia (the Balkans). It is therefore likely that the present work is a portrait of Laurens himself.