” A moment of thoughtfulness”, this genre scene was executed in 1874 by French painter Édouard Charles Adolphe Steinheil (1850 - Paris - 1908).
He owes his fame to the adventurous life of his wife, Marguerite Steinheil, and to the mysterious murder of which he was the victim, the Steinheil affair.

His father was the glass painter Louis Steinheil, restorer of the stained-glass windows of Strasbourg Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle, and his uncle was the painter Ernest Meissonier.

He earned his living by creating miniatures in the style of Meissonier, as well as by painting murals and restoring stained-glass windows in churches, following his father's example.

On July 9, 1890, he married Marguerite Japy, born in 1869. She was his model for a time, but she aspired to a more intense and wealthy life, and opened a salon in their villa at 6 bis, Impasse Ronsin, near Montparnasse, soon to be frequented by the Parisian elite.
Becoming the archetypal demi-mondaine, combining ambition and temperament, she was successively in the arms of various influential and generous lovers. Marguerite, always concerned about her husband's career, obtained painting commissions from his patrons, which made it all the easier for Adolphe to accept his marital misfortunes.

Her affair with the President of the Republic, Félix Faure, earned her understanding husband an official commission for a monumental painting representing The Presentation of Decorations by the President of the Republic to the Survivors of the Ruined Redoubt Disaster (August 8, 1897), which was exhibited at the Salon of 1898, as well as the cross of the Legion of Honor the same year

Works: Orsay, Paris; Williamstown/Massachssets, Clark Art Institute.

Literature: Artist lexicons by Bénézit (in French) and by Thieme/Becker (in German).

Inscription: signed and dated 1874 lower left, old bronze plaque with the artist's name, mounted to the frame.

Technique: oil on canvas.  French original period gilt frame.

Measurements: unframed w 12 7/8" x h 16 1/4" (32,7 x 41,2 cm); framed w 20" x h 23 1/3" (51 x 59,5 cm).

Condition: in good condition, old relining of canvas.