Henri TAUREL (Maignelay, 1843 - 1927) Maternity, 1879 Canvas Signed lower right: "HENRI TAUREL 1879 65 x 81,1 cm Provenance: - Jacques Malatier Collection (1926-2017). - Its sale after death, SGL enchères et Ader Nordmann, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, October 10, 2018, n° 88. Born into a well-to-do family from the Oise region, Taurel produced little and rarely exhibited (a few works at the salons between 1865 and 1872, then another at the Salon des Refusés in 1873). His works, which remained in his family, were dispersed in 1982. We know of some landscapes of the Oise, symbolist and mysterious, painted at the beginning of the 20th century (see Marie-José Salmon and Josette Galiègue, Les collections du XXe siècle du musée départemental de l'Oise, tome II, 1994, p.48, n° 60). Here, the composition is hieratic and frontal: the characters are in profile, the forms and colors are partitioned within a calligraphic line. The purist and precisionist composition, the richness of details (toys, rendering of fabrics...), the muted range of rare, muted colors, give way to a slight taste for Japonism with the fan and the vase placed on the mantelpiece. It can be compared to other paintings by Taurel: Au Piano and Interieur with a Farmer with a spinning wheel, seen on the art market in recent years.