Mademoiselle Jeanne

about Mademoiselle Jeanne

Benjamin Benno’s remarkably simple portrait of a woman depicts the subject as a mere mannequin without any facial features or distinctive attributes.

With her form simplified to the greatest extent, the artist casts bright sunlight over the sitter that adds dimension and a sense of realism to the otherwise whimsical work. By the early 1930s he had established a reputation as a member of the international avant-garde and exhibited with the most significant European artists including Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Hans Arp, and Fernand Léger. Pablo Picasso sponsored Benno’s first one-man show in Paris in 1934.