Paule GOBILLARD (1869-1946) Couture in the park, circa 1917 Oil on canvas. Signed with a brush lower right. (Lined). 38 x 46 cm Paule Gobillard often portrayed two women sewing or knitting together in the garden, in her quickly sketched studies. in the garden. These scenes reflect the daily lives of her family and friends at Le Mesnil in Juziers, an estate inherited by her cousin Julie Manet (Mme Ernest Rouart) from her parents, Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet. Although these are not portraits, the cousins' habit of cousins had kept living together suggests that the lanky figure sitting in the deckchair was painted after Julie, while the allure of the seated woman recalls that of the painter's own sister, Mme Paul Valéry (Jeannie Gobillard), particularly in a photograph taken around 1917 (cat. exp. Julie Manet, la mémoire impressionniste, Paris, musée Marmottan Monet, 2021 - 2022, p. 98; cat. exp. Julie Manet et ses cousines, la liberté de créer au féminin, Deauville, Les Franciscaines, 2023 - 2024). Expert: Dominique d'Arnoult, Doctor of Art History.