L’Alsace. Elle attend (1871)

L’Alsace. Elle Attend was commissioned by Eugénie Kestner, a member of the Thann industrial family. The painting was offered to Léon Gambetta (1838-1882) who was one of the fiercest opponents of the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire following the 1870 war. In a context of intensified patriotic feelings following the French defeat, the painting by Henner soon became a symbol of the sufferings of Alsace, a grief that was also felt by the painter who was very attached to the land of his birth. This work is not a portrait but the personification of Alsace, an allegory belonging to the real world and portrayed by a young, simple and dignified Alsatian woman in mourning. During that period, the painter adopted a naturalistic style, as can be seen in Woman on a Black Sofa, exhibited at the Salon in 1869. The tri-coloured cockade pinned on the Alsatian black bow adds a strong patriotic meaning to a painting that avoids grandiloquence and anecdote. Etude de l'œuvre sur le site internet "l'histoire par l'image".