Musidora

Jeanne Roques, better known as Musidora, was born in Paris in 1889. Her father was a composer and theorist of socialism, while her mother was a painter and feminist.

Jeanne began creating at a very young age and reportedly wrote her first novel when she was only fifteen. She later became an actress, writer, filmmaker and producer, and is now best remembered for playing the mysterious Irma Vep in the silent film serial Les Vampires.

I am not a traditional portrait artist and do not try to create an exact likeness. I work from old black-and-white photographs and then create my own interpretation of the woman, often inventing the body, clothing and background and using colours that never appeared in the original photograph.

In this painting, I wanted to preserve Musidora’s famous dark eyes while surrounding her with strong, contrasting colours. As in almost all the paintings from my Paris Women series, she looks directly into the viewer’s eyes. This is deliberate. I want these women to be seen, but I also want them to look back at us.

Musidora was much more than the mysterious woman in the black bodysuit for which she became famous. She acted alongside Colette, founded her own film production company and later helped preserve the history of early cinema through her work at the Cinémathèque française.
The original oil painting has been sold and now lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Fine-art canvas prints are available in several sizes, including impressive large formats.