Manda Lamétrie, farmer

Manda Lamétrie, farmer ( French : Manda Lamétrie, fermière) is the title of a painting by Alfred Roll . This imposing portrait from 1887 was a great success at the salon a year later. A critic of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts even called it the year of the painting. [1] Since 1980, it is part of the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris .

Presentation
Alfred Roll was a summer house near Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer on the coast of Normandy near Dieppe . In the same village had Amanda (Manda) Lamétrie a small farm. In the portrait she has just one of her three cows milked in the orchard . With determined look she runs off with a bucket full of milk on the viewer. The success at the painting fell, the life of the woman changed little. Until her death she remained unmarried and kept her farm, supplementing her income with guarding dachas and catching shrimp . [2]

In the eighties of the nineteenth century painted several portraits Roll in naturalistic style. He used the bright palette of impressionism, but without taking over the loose technique of that flow. The portrait of the then twenty Lamétrie Amanda is one of the highlights of this series. The artists of naturalism had a preference for depicting scenes from everyday life. With Zola they were of the opinion that the activities and the environment of the main characters determined their fate in general. The monumental, frontal view that roll used in this portrait, Amanda Lamétrie transforms into an icon of the French rural population. [1]

Origin

 * 1888: bought from the artist for the Musée du Luxembourg .
 * 1920: transferred to the Louvre .
 * 1980: transferred to the Musée d'Orsay.