Description

Presumed portrait of MADELEINE MILHAUD , actress and librettist, wife of the composer Darius Milhaud.
Pencil and gouache, signed "André M.". -from the Darius Milhaud archives, given to the composer in the late 1930s.

Born in 1902, Madeleine Milhaud always kept the same surname, marrying her cousin, composer Darius Milhaud, in Aix-en-Provence in 1925. Madeleine Milhaud spent the twentieth century working alongside some of the greatest figures in the arts. Not only was she her husband's muse and accomplice, she also pursued a personal career as an actress, director and librettist. Numerous photographs taken in the 1930s show her wearing a simple blouse and her hair always up at the nape of her neck, a hairstyle she wore until her death in 2008.

André Marchand befriended the composer Darius Milhaud, also from Aix, in Paris. In 1936, he designed sets and costumes for his ballet "Suite Provençale"; that same year, Darius Milhaud introduced him to Pierre Colle, who became his gallerist. In 1937, Marchand was awarded the Prix Paul Guillaume.
Mobilised in 1939, Marchand narrowly escaped death, retreated for a time to Aix-en-Provence, then took part in the exhibition "Vingt jeunes peintres de tradition française" (Twenty young painters in the French tradition), a demonstration organised in Paris against the Nazi ideology of "degenerate art". In the post-war period, his first exhibitions met with great success, helping to establish him as one of the leading figures in "southern" painting.

Provenance Archives of Darius Milhaud - given to the composer at the end of the 1930s