Claire DU LOCLE (French, Paris 1864 - 1905 Paris)
Claire Adèle Émilie DUCOMMUN DU LOCLE, known as Claire DU LOCLE, is a woman from Parisian society, known for having been a model for famous painters. She also practiced pyrography on leather for which she received awards.
Claire Adèle Émilie DUCOMMUN DU LOCLE, known as Mademoiselle Claire DU LOCLE was born in Paris on January 24, 1864. She is the daughter of the librettist, impresario and director of the Paris comic opera, Camille DUCOMMUN DU LOCLE and Marie-Henriette DOUX . His paternal grandfather is Daniel DUCOMMUN DU LOCLE, a senior finance official and sculptor. Claire DU LOCLE's family has always been linked to state administration and finances and partly turned towards the arts. Thus, at a very young age, Claire DU LOCLE poses for painters, friends of the family. She appears in particular in the guise of a pensive angel leaning on a cloud, alongside Christian GARNIER (Son of Charles), in an allegory of Persia, painted by Paul BAUDRY, today decorating the grand foyer of the Opera Garnier. We find her in the guise of a young socialite with a fan, in a watercolor by the painter Guillaume DUBUFE, now kept at the Musée d'Orsay.
On May 28, 1887, she married Charles Alfred GRANDJEAN, secretary-editor in the Senate and honorary inspector of historical monuments, with whom she had a son and divorced on May 12, 1898.
It seems that once she became a free woman again, she began a career as an artist, but also as a society columnist in newspapers. His name appears for example in the newspaper “Le Figaro” of February 21, 1903 for a commemoration. But she stands out much more for her work of sculpture and pyrography on leather for which, in 1899, she won second place in the "Dessis pour executions sur Cuir" in the 4th competition organized by the Ladies' Committee of the Central Union of Decorative. Arts. Very quickly, Decorative Art magazines cited his name and illustrated their articles with the works of Claire de LOCLE. Unfortunately, after a short career which lasted only 6 years, she died at the age of 41, rue de Tocqueville in Paris, on February 26, 1905.