Initially, this painting was called The Wish IV (Liberty), at a later date the name was changed to Hope, or L’Espérance in French. The subject is Danielle Politzer with whom Christine had just completed a simpler portrait. It is a slightly dark painting, as the young woman in her torn blouse is seated in a cell with the only signs of light and vegetation represented by a shadow of a window on the wall behind her: she looks out of that window in hope.

In 1975 the painting was entered into the Gran Premio dei Sette Colli di Roma (Grand Prix of Seven Hills of Rome) held at the Winter Casino in Cannes, France. It won a Diploma D’Onore.

This painting was exhibited at the Bilan d’art Contemporian gallery in Montmartre, Paris, as part of Artistes du Sud de la France (Artists from the South of France) Exhibition. An article about this exhibition that appeared in La Revue Moderne – des arts et de la vie – July 1979 (below) includes a black & white photographic reproduction and states the following, translated: “Christine Benson reveals to us great qualities as a portraitist. She knows how to give her portraits finesse, density, truth and asserts a personal style. This artist from the Var reveals to us solid professionalism, good technical mastery, and knows how to give her compositions real authenticity and sincerity.”

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