Sadly, the location of some of Louise’s portraits of the Torres family is unknown, but her corre- spondence provides insight into their making and reception. Louise recalls Manolita’s reaction to her portrait (“Every time she looks at it, she exclaims: ‘But you have made me too pretty, too young!’”) and how challenging it was to depict the sixteen-year- old Augusto (1913–1992), who moved restlessly on his chair. 5 The younger Horacio (1924–1976) also posed for Louise, dressed in a beige outfit and a green beret, sitting on an antique chest. 6 Pierre’s drypoints of Manolita (1883–1994) and Augusto have survived and are reproduced here.
Paris was the perfect milieu to foster artistic ambi- tions and the Torres children participated in their father’s professional life. In one of her letters, Louise affectionately recalls how she and Pierre attended the opening of an exhibition featuring pic- tures by Augusto, Olimpia, and Ifigenia: There was a great crowd, which was very flattering to the children who had violent stage fright and hoped for all sorts of sickness and sudden death to keep them from being at their own exhibition. The paint- ings of Auguste are remarkable, and those of the two girls more naïve. 7
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