Painting dated 1983 by Yves Hersent (1925-1987), who was part of the important “Group of Montparnasse” colony of modernist artists from 1942 to 1948. He studied under Maurice Brianchon, one of the leading artists of the 1930s “Réalité Poétique” movement. Hersent’s work was also heavily influenced by the Nabis of the late 19th century and their portrayal of everyday subjects with an emphasis on their inner, emotional, or imaginative qualities, rather than pure factual representation. In the late 1940s he won First Prize for Art for the City of Paris which secured him a position as a professor in the city’s private school system for the remainder of his life. In 1981, after a near death experience, he began to focus on his own painting full time, and these late career works often centered on a controlled erotism with elaborate compositions exploring coming of age themes.