[Méry LAURENT]. Wilhem BENQUE. 2 photographs of Méry Laurent fanning herself in a Japanese kimono, late 1870s. Two albumin prints mounted on original cabinet-format cardboard, from the Benque & Co studio, 33 rue Boissy d'Anglas, Paris. Beautiful early 19th c. Japanese painted lacquer frame (some tears). In profile and 3/4 in the same session, the former actress plays with the snapshot. - Méry in profile appeared with this print at the Mallarmé exhibition, Musée d'Orsay, 1998, no. 209. [Another from the Mondor bequest (Bibl. litt. J. Doucet) was exhibited in Nancy, Méry Laurent, Manet, Mallarmé et les autres..., 2005 n° 23 (reprod.) and in Vulaines-sur-Seine, L'Éventail dans le monde de Stéphane Mallarmé, Musée départemental Mallarmé, Liénart, 2009, n° 20 (reprod.)]. - Méry de trois quarts remains unpublished, except in the Sotheby's cat. below. Benque also painted a portrait of the artist Jeanne Jacquemin, a friend of Mallarmé. Provenance: [Mallarmé/Bonniot/Henry Charpentier/Paul Morel]. Paris, Sotheby's, 15/10/2015 n° 201-202 (without the Japanese frame).