She was born in in the village of Dulwich, England, in 1889, just south of central London. As a child, she moved with her family to South Africa, settling in Cape Town by 1894. There, her parents recognized and nurtured her artistic talents.

She continued her artistic studies in Paris from 1902-1906, studying drawing with William Bouguereau at the Academie Julian. She said that the three great inspirations of her life were Renoir, Picasso, and Gauguin, but Renoir more than the others.

After Paris, she returned to South Africa in 1915, where she established a studio and married a New Zealander Hugh Couper Tennent in 1915.

After their wedding, Hugh and Madge returned to Hugh's home in Invercargill, New Zealand, the southernmost point of the Southern Island.

Hugh, like most young ablebodied young New Zealanders and Australians, headed off to Europe to fight. Hugh was lucky - he severely injured his arm in France and returned home. Many of his countrymen were not as fortunate.

In 1917, Hugh sought out and received a position as Treasurer for British Samoa. Across the Pacific the couple sailed, and for the next six years, Madge immersed herself in Samoan culture and began her lifelong artistic quest to express her love for the people of Polynesia. In 1923, after six years in British

Samoa, Hugh and Madge decided to return to England so their sons could be educated. En route, they stopped over in Hawaii. Their intent was to stay only a few days, but they were enchanted with the Hawaiian Islands and its people. They decided to make Hawaii their home. Madge would remain in the Islands for the next fifty years.

Madge's Hawaiian artistic life began as she put her artistic talents to work doing commissioned portraits of children. During this period, she received a gift from a friend, a book on the life paintings of Paul Gauguin, especially his Tahitian paintings.

Recalling her training in Paris, Madge was inspired and influenced by Gauguin's Polynesian work. She began painting Hawaiian women, large paintings with images of large island women portrayed with wild dazzling colorful swirls of heavy impasto.

Later Madge quipped, "The Hawaiians are really to me the most beautiful people in the world, no doubt about it, the Hawaiian is a piece of living sculpture."

According to "Madge Tennent's Creed," published in the Isaacs Center's exhibition booklet, here are some some of the things Madge tried to achieve in her painting.

She wrote, "To make heavy forms lyric, to organize and paint big subjects as one would conduct a symphony, to build up color shapes in a three-dimensional painting

much as one builds with bricks in a three-dimensional world, and to paint each picture in its most suitable rhythm ... used to give a sense of perpetual vibration or motion."

By 1935, Madge's work was receiving widespread approval. She was given a multi-city one-woman exhibition visiting Paris, London, Cairo, New York. The following year, a number of these paintings were exhibited in California. They were received warmly in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but were refused in Oakland.

An incensed Diego Rivera wrote Tennent personally to vent his anger at the receiving committee’s “stupidity,” adding, “Had I been on the jury refusing your pictures, I would have RENOUNCED at once!” In the end, this retort from Diego Rivera didn't hurt.

Today Madge Tennent is considered one of the most accomplished artists ever to have lived and worked in Hawaii. Outside Hawaii, Madge's works are in the collections of he Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, D. C.), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London).

In Hawaii, her works may be viewed at the Bailey House Museum on Maui, the Hawaii State Art Museum, the Bishop Museum, Spalding House and the Honolulu Museum of Art on Oahu, and the Isaacs Art Center on the Big Island.

While many of their contemporaries were creating classical mythic allegories or scenes of the heroic deeds done by the French King, the brothers often painted French peasants, giving us a vivid window into the daily life of Parisian peasants in the early 17th century.

Much of what we know of the Le Nain Brothers is from his writing. Nineteenth century artists Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet were also impressed with the Le Nain Brothers' painting and helped popularize their work.

Today, their work is admired for its deeply sympathetic and affecting portrayals of hard-working peasants.

The Legion's exhibition includes one of the brother's most important religious works, Nativity of the Virgin, an altarpiece from Notre Dame Cathedral on display for the first time in the United States. The exhibition also includes loans from the Musee de Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Collection of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

A striking portrait on exhibit is that of le Comte de Treville, the Captain of the Royal Musketeers, the inspiration for Alexandre Dumas's novel, The Three Musketeers.

As head of the Musketeers, Treville was part of a plot to assassinate Richelieu in 1642. Louis XIII had Treville exiled, but within a year, both Richelieu and Louis XIII were dead. Anne of Austria rewarded Treville for his loyalty and made him a Count. This portrait was

done after he was named a Count. He is pictured with a sword and he no longer bears the signature musket of the Musketeers. This portrait with its exquisite brushwork helps rank the Le Nain brothers among the finest portraitists of French 17th century painting.

There is no record of the brothers having wives or children. They were born in a small town, Laon in the Picardy region of France. They received training from an unknown artist who traveled through their town. They were recognized by their peers as leaders in the art world of their day. All three were elected into the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris.

The Brothers Le Nain at the Legion of Honor | Back to the Top

Linda Sorensen's Paintings can now be seen at the Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection, the gallery in the inland town of Bodega at the west end of Bodega Highway (Hwy 12), a half block from the Casino, and just across from the General Store and the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department.

Our thanks to Lorenzo De Santis for showing Linda's work and hope you can all stop in and see this wonderful (and renovated) gallery very soon.

Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery is not at present a "brick and mortar" storefront gallery. We've moved out and now exist as an online only gallery, although arrangements can be made to view specific artworks. Please keep in touch with us by phone, email, our website, and our newsletters to keep up on where Linda's artist studio lands, and what new ways we may find to show and celebrate historic California art beyond the website itself.

Soon: a new gallery in our former Highway One space. Pacific Bay Gallery will open next door to The Ren Brown Collection, featuring the work of resident artist Noki Jones. We'll keep you informed about the opening of Pacific Bay Gallery in our newsletter. And we'll also keep you informed about where to acquire the watercolors of Jean Warren and the photographs of Diane Perry.

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art