Hélène Delaroche (1907-1996)

Toledo Bridge – 1933

View of the Alcántara Bridge in Toledo (Spain), which crosses Tagus River. This bridge is an access point to the historic centre of the city by crossing the eastern side of the surrounding wall. Various figures, carts and draught animals complete the scene. Oil on canvas, large format, signed lower left as well as signed and dated on the stretcher.

Hélène Marie-Louise Delaroche (married name, Untersteller) was a French painter, born in Etiolles (Île-de-France) on February 8, 1907 and died in Cinq-Mars-la-Pile (Centre) on January 22, 1996.

Daughter of Marguerite Delaroche (1873-1963), a French miniaturist painter, she was student of Jean-Paul Laurens and Louis Roger, then studied at the Académie Julian. She exhibited at the Salon des artistes français from 1929 and became a member in 1932. She exhibited religious compositions, a mural decoration project and paintings brought back from Spain.

Together with her husband, the painter Nicolas Untersteller, she lived at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1929 to 1931 and then, as the recipient of a travel grant, was sent to the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid (1933-1934). In 1937, she received a Second Prize Medal at the Salon.

Sources: René Édouard-Joseph, Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporains, Édition, 1930; Benezit, Dictionary of Artists, 1999; Archives de France.

Artist: Hélène Delaroche (1907-1996).
Signed lower left.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Very good condition.
Dimensions: 81 x 65 cm. / 32 x 25 ½ in.
Frame: Sold without frame.
Origin: France.