Michel FRONTI - Portrait of a young blonde woman

Michel FRONTI
Marseille, 1862 – Marseille, 1936
Portrait of a Young Blonde Girl
Pastel signed upper right "M. Fronti"
35 x 27 cm (56 x 50 cm with frame)
Original frame
Very good condition
This is a beautiful pastel portrait by the painter and pastellist Michel Fronti. Born in 1862 in Marseille to a Spanish father, he studied under Eugène Lagier at the Beaux-Arts in Marseille, then under Jules Lefèbvre in Paris. Michel Fronti exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from the 1880s. His works are mentioned in the catalogue of works at the Museum of Fine Arts in Marseille (the "Boutique de pain à Marseille", 1889) and at the Cantini Museum with several works ("Le repos", a "House in a garden" and the portrait of Mrs. Maurice Hubert, 1914). Fronti participated in the Salon des Artistes Français from 1889 to 1935 with pastels and in particular very pretty portraits of women (Portrait of a young girl, portrait of Madame Parinando, Portrait of Mademoiselle Harriet Strasy, from the Théatre de la Monnaie in Messaline, 1911). He was awarded a medal of honor in 1920 for a "Reclining Woman, Study of a Nude" (pastel) and a silver medal in 1922 ("Indolence", pastel). He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Marseillais and at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Provençaux In 1898, "Michel Fronti, under the name of Ponponnette, exhibited a study of a young woman which made many visitors stop, amazed to find so much brilliance in this fresh pastel, while, in an oil painting by the same author, a marked predilection for the conventional colors of the school of M. Gérome was affirmed. This is the top of the basket, the flower of the pastels exhibited, but alongside these beautiful blooms, everyone noticed a number of buds full of the most seductive promises: the two studies of women by Mme Frederique Vallet; the Parisienne by Mule Tournoy; the study head of Mme de Mazet; the very beautiful portrait of Mme P. by M. Marre, who excels in giving pastel a very particular vigor. » (Bulletin of the Society of Letters, Sciences and Arts of Agen, Edition of the year 1898)

Ref: HW56ON8NXW