Oil on canvas, signed lower right and verso. 66 x 87cm.
 
Maggy Clarysse was obsessed with art and would rise early each day to get to her easel, completing 12 hours of painting, sketching, sculpting and drawing before turning her hand to crafts in the evening.
The art came before and after a successful career as a model from the 1940s to 60s with the glamour that it brought with it.
Born in Belgium, Maggy studied at art college in Brussels with the aim of becoming a Paris fashion designer. To that end, she eventually approached a leading couture house to show them her designs.
To her delight, they agreed to take her on immediately. However, they did not want her as a designer, but as a model.
This led to work in Paris, London and around Europe, with Maggy basing herself first in Germany and then in Paris as a couture house model and then a model for Vogue.
She was photographed by Terence Donovan and David Bailey, with one shoot ending up with her pushing the then leading film star, Norman Wisdom, into a swimming pool her reasons for doing so remain shrouded in mystery.
It was while on holiday in the south of France in the late 1950s that she met her future husband, an English businessman, and they then married and moved to Barnes in south-west London.
She gave up modelling when her son was born, and the glamour days of chic long dresses were over, and she then turned her exceptional work ethic towards art.
Maggy painted from dusk to dawn for many decades up until her death in 2011 and enjoyed considerable success commercially.
She would divide her time between London and their apartment in the South of France, and she hosted several exhibitions a year between the early 1970s and the late 2000s in both London and Antibes. 
Her work sold for up to £6,000-8,000 and very little of it has appeared on the market in recent years.  This painting is from a sale of residual pieces from her studio.
 
We are selling this painting, as it is, unframed but can arrange framing to your taste through QED framers, Oare, Marlborough, Wiltshire, who can deal with you direct if you wish – we will arrange delivery to you thereafter.