This lovely drawing, actually called La Lecture, was sent to me by a friend in America. The artist is Alix Ayme (1894-1989). Here is what my friend told me about it:
It is a double portrait by Alix Aymé of her son, François, reading. What makes it especially poignant is that it is dated 18 April 1945, which means that it was done while they were interned in a Japanese concentration camp in Hanoi.
On 9 March 1945, she, her two sons, and her husband, General Georges Aymé, (older brother of the writer Marcel) were captured by the invading Japanese and Michel, her older son, was murdered. She and François were separated from Georges, who at the time was both the Commander of the French Army in Indochina and a secret agent of De Gaulle. After the war they all were returned to France. Georges never really recovered from the experience and died in 1950. François was also badly damaged for the rest of his life. But Alix, sustained by her art, survived. She died on her 95th birthday while putting the finishing touches to a lacquer panel. She was a truly remarkable person and artist.
I had never heard of Alix Ayme, and her Wikipedia entry is not very informative. However you can read much more about her, and see more of her beautiful paintings, on this website. I am hoping to go soon to see the murals she painted in a chapel not far from where I live, and a documentary is on the way. Lovely.
