Henry Caro-Delvaille (1876-1928) “Female nude” Oil on Canvas Signed in Frame

Henry Caro-Delvaille (1876-1928) “Female Nude” Oil on canvas in frame signed lower right.

Daniel Auguste Benjamin Delvaille known as Henry Caro-Delvaille was born in Bayonne on July 6, 1876, at 35 rue d’Espagne, son of Fernand Delvaille, a banker-stockbroker, and Caroline Rueff. The diminutive of his mother’s name would shape his artistic name.
After a brief military career in the 6th Hussars, interrupted by an accident, in 1895 he entered the drawing class of the Bayonne School of Fine Arts. A year later, thanks to a scholarship from the city, he joined the community of Basque painters in Paris in the studio of Léon Bonnat, then in that of Albert Maignan. Close to Maurice Denis, influenced by Puvis de Chavanne, from 1901, he achieved success thanks to his social portraits and intimate genre scenes. Handsome, dark-haired, of Iberian origins, seductive, an excellent dancer, he could not fail to be appreciated. He entered the circle of Americans in Paris, frequented the dancer Isadora Duncan, the patron Winnaritta Singer, Princess Edmond de Polignac.
The acquisition of a private mansion on the rue de Rémusat consolidated his reputation among his clientele. He became a member of the Société nationale des beaux-arts in 1903 and its secretary in 1904. In 1905 he won the large gold medal at the International Exhibition in Munich. The same year his friend Edmond Rostand entrusted him with the decoration of his villa in Cambo, Villa Arnaga des Rostand, a large residence in neo-Basque style. He later became known as a portraitist and received numerous orders. He was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1910. His painting can be compared to that of Carolus Duran (1837-1917), a famous painter of the Belle Époque.

Henri Caro-Delvaille emigrated to the United States in 1913 and settled in New York, moving towards a more Art Deco style. He was a central figure in artistic, literary and musical circles on both sides of the Atlantic, from Paris to New York.
He died in Sceaux in 1928.

Fascinated by female beauty, Delvaille stood out for his portraits and paintings of women. His nudes are always portrayed from behind, in an intimate atmosphere, refined and sensual, enveloped in a soft light.

Measurements
canvas cm 115 x 87
frame cm 135 x 107