Madame Favre

To date very little is known of Madame Favre, other than that between 1858 and 1860 she made a number of pencil drawings on a spiritualist theme. These works were discovered in a spiritualist's library in the 1970s in the form of an exercise book titled Natural Talent of Mme Favre. From a technical standpoint, these drawings are remarkable for the precision of their treatment of detail, especially the eyes and hair. Certain themes recur in several works: strange hairstyles and headwear, faces appearing in the hair, and the extravagant luxuriance of hairdos and beards that threaten to envelop the figures, often shown doubled.