*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Delphin Enjolras* (French, 1857-1945) L'haut Thé et Potine   ( High Tea and Gossip) Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 23 inches (38 x 33 inches framed) Signed lower left: D Enjolras Provenance: Galerie Léon Gerard, 18 Rue Drouet, Paris Private Collection, Chicago L’haut Thé et Potine features an elegant interior setting in which three young women enjoy tea and conversation. The women are set in a grand space decorated in a style synonymous with 18th century refinement, though their costume is quite cosmopolitan. Enjolras creates a dichotomy between their modernity and the traditionalism of the surroundings. Renowned as a portraitist of the upper echelons of society, Enroljas particularly favored depicting women in intimate settings alone or among friends, illuminated by a soft glow of light. In the present work, a decorative lamp casts light on their conversation in an otherwise darkened room. Enjolras frequently used light to create atmosphere, highlighting the figures’ exposed skin and diaphanous drapery. Delphin Enjolras was born on May 13, 1857 in the historic town of Coucouron in the Ardèche. His formal artistic training began in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the esteemed Salon painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. Enjolras also studied with Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret and Gustave Claude Etienne Courtois, and is recorded as having furthered his artistic education at the Ecole de Dessin in Paris under Gaston Gérard. Having made his debut at the Société des Artistes Français in 1889 he was elected a member in 1901 and continued to show works with the Société until 1909. Best known for his dazzling studies of young women illuminated by lamp light or engaged in domestic activities, he also portrayed a number of Orientalist subjects, genre scenes and society portraits. In addition Enjolras painted city views as well as beautiful landscapes. The majority of his works exhibited at the Salon (from 1890) tended to focus contemporary bourgeois settings of which the present work is typical.