Attributed to Félix CLEMENT (1826 - 1888) Circassian woman in a harem Original canvas 71 x 119 cm Inscribed lower right "P. BAVDRY. BAVDRY / Pit 1865". Old restorations Provenance : - Hôtel de la Païva (according to the notice in the 2007-2008 exhibition catalog) ; - Anonymous sale, Versailles (Mes Machoïr et Bailly), June 6, 1991, no. 259 (Paul Baudry, Odalisque); - Anonymous sale, Paris, (Me Renaud), December 18, 1991, no. 3 (Paul Baudry, L'Amour endormi) ; - Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Me Boisgirard), October 26, 1998, no. 285 (Paul Baudry 55,000 fr). Bibliography : Catalog of the exhibition Paul Baudry, 1828-1886. Les portraits et les nus, Lucs-sur-Boulogne, Historial de la Vendée, October 26, 2007-February 3, 2008, reproduced in color under no. 44, p. 140 (Paul Baudry, work not located). Reference bibliography: Exhibition catalog A-Félix Clément (1826-1888). Itinéraire d'un peintre drômois au XIXème siècle, Valence, Musée de Valence from October 21 to December 31, 1996. Our painting can be compared with two versions of La Circassienne au harem, painted by Félix Auguste Clément in 1880; the first, 141 x 222 cm, was commissioned by an uncle of the khedive, but not paid for. Clément presented it at the 1880 Salon, where it was a great success (no. 797. See J.-J. Breton, Anthologie des Peintres Pompiers, 2010). The Salon libretto quotes Byron's Song VI, Don Juan: "Dudu seemed a kind of sleeping Venus, nevertheless very apt to kill the sleep of those who contemplated the clear complexion of her cheeks, her Athenian brow and her nose worthy of Phidias". The second, smaller version (canvas, 42 x 66 cm), from the Bernard Lamarche-Vadel collection, was presented for sale in Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Me Loudmer), December 15, 1995, no. 10. Félix-Auguste Clément studied with Bonnefond in Lyon and Picot and Drolling in Paris. In 1856, he was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome. He returned to Paris in 1862 and left for Egypt, where Prince Halim commissioned him to decorate his palace at Choubrah near Cairo.