Fernande Barrey (9 January 1893 in Saint-Valery-sur-Somme – 14 July 1960 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

model and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Biography

Fernande Barrey left her native Picardy in about 1908 and moved to Paris, where she survived as a

child prostitute Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a Minor (law), minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdict ...

. She then became the model for many painters, including

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

and Chaïm Soutine, who persuaded her to study painting and art history at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

. In March 1917, she met the Japanese artist

Tsuguharu Foujita was a Japanese–French painter. After having studied Western-style painting in Japan, Foujita traveled to Paris, where he encountered the international modern art scene of the Montparnasse neighborhood and developed an eclectic style that borrow ...

at the Café de la Rotonde in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

, who fell madly in love with her and married her thirteen days later. In 1918 the couple moved to escape the German bombs to Cagnes-sur-Mer, where she spent a year painting and meeting many friends. During this period, she became friends with

Jeanne Hébuterne Jeanne Hébuterne (; 6 April 1898 – 26 January 1920) was a French painter and art model best known as the frequent subject and Common-law marriage, common-law wife of the artist Amedeo Modigliani. She died by suicide two days after Modigliani ...

, the bride of Modigliani. When Modigliani died of tuberculosis in 1920, Barrey tried in vain to console the new widow, but Jeanne, eight months pregnant, committed suicide. During the year 1925, the couple led a very open relationship, both having relations with people of both sexes. The painter did not forgive Fernande after she had a love affair with his cousin, Koyanagi, a painter. He then locked himself with the Belgian artist Lucie Badoul (called Youki) for three days during which Fernande desperately sought her husband in the Parisian morgues. In 1928, the couple divorced and she lived with Koyanagi in Montmartre. When Koyanagi was separated himself in 1935, his relationship with Tsuguharu Foujita improved; he helped her financially until her death. Some sources link Fernande Barrey and the famous Miss Fernande, favourite model of the female photographer Jean Agélou, who appeared on many erotic postcards, although this has never been proven. As a painter, she exhibited the paintings ''Josiane'' and ''Les Pêches'' at the Salon d'Automne in 1929.

References

Bibliography

* * Christian Bourdon et Jean-Pierre Bourgeron, '' Jean Agélou : de l’académisme à la photographie de charme'', Éditions Marval, 2007. * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrey, Fernande 1893 births 1974 deaths People from Saint-Valery-sur-Somme French artists' models 20th-century French painters French prostitutes 20th-century French women painters