Bidspirit auction | [MONET CLAUDE]: (1840-1926) & [CLEMENCEAU

[MONET CLAUDE]: (1840-1926) & [CLEMENCEAU GEORGES]: (1841-1929) - [MONET CLAUDE]: (1840-1926) French Impressionist painter & [CLEMENCEAU GEORGES]: (1841-1929) French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France 1906-09 & 1917-20, and was a long-time friend and supporter of Monet, writing a short biography of the artist. A fine original vintage unsigned 5.5 x 6 photograph, the historic image by Henri Martinie dating from 1921 and depicting the two giants of French history standing in full-length poses together, in their later years, in the gardens of Monet´s home at Giverny, and displaying a certain kinship. Both men wear slightly misshapen soft hats, and Monet, sporting a long white beard and smoking a cigarette, stands towards the camera wearing a light coloured jacket, waistcoat and trousers, accompanied by an overcoat, and with his hands in his pockets. Clemenceau, whose walrus moustache echoes Monet´s beard, is dressed in darker clothes, with his knickerbockers tucked into his boots, and stands in profile, one hand on his hip and leaning on his walking cane as he engages in conversation. Immediately behind the two men Blanche Hoschedé can be seen wearing a white dress, and slightly further in the background appears Alice Butler, wearing a white blouse and dark skirt. With the purple ink credit stamp of Henri Martinie of Rue de Penthiévre, Paris, to the verso. A few very slight, minor traces of former mounting to the verso, otherwise VG Henri Martinie (1885-1965) French portrait photographer who captured the definitive faces of the Paris avant-garde, literary, and political scenes between World War I and World War II. Blanche Hoschedé Monet (1865-1947) French painter, both the stepdaughter and daughter-in-law of Monet. After the death of her mother Alice in 1911 and that of her husband Jean in 1914, Blanche took over her father-in-law´s household. Their mutual friend, the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, described Blanche as Monet´s ´Blue Angel´. Alice Butler (1894–1949) was the step-granddaughter of Monet. Known affectionately as ´Lilly´, Alice was the daughter of Suzanne Hoschedé (1868-1899), the stepdaughter and favourite model of Monet, and her husband, the American Impressionist painter Theodore Earl Butler (1861-1936).