August Laux (French/American, 1847-1921), "Reclining Lady Holding a Parakeet", late 19th c., oil on canvas, signed lower left, 12 in. x 16 in., period frame.
Note: The conceptual pendant to this opulent scene was Laux's genre painting sold at Christie's East, New York, on 20 November 1990, lot 47, as A Long-Awaited Correspondence (10 in. x 12 in.). That picture exactly reversed the composition of this present painting, but otherwise replicated all its compositional elements very precisely. It showed the same lady in the same pose, also with her head supported on one hand; the same recamier and upholstery; and the same large screen behind (though in this picture the screen is painted with scenes of Courtly Love, while in the previous painting its shorter panels were only indistinctly decorated). Both pictures exhibit the same crowded décor, with a draped table near the head of the couch, large vases of flowers, and the artistic accents (here, a Barbizon-style landscape; there, a cabinet of porcelains standing behind the foot of the recamier). The new elements introduced into the slightly expanded format of the present painting are the more luxuriant tropical plant, the colossal glass ewer, and the parakeet's cage (its door opened), with a separate rug beneath. The palette here is rich, dense, and saturated, with the emphasis on the central color harmonies of pink, gold, and blue. Laux, born of French parents probably in Wiesbaden, emigrated with them to New York in 1863, and pursued courses at the National Academy of Design, at which he exhibited from 1870. After a decade as a fashionable New York muralist, he began painting pictures such as this around 1880, a style he continued to practice for the next forty years.
Reference: Compare Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Paris, [1911-1923, 1948-1955] 1976, vol. 6, p. 488.