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 she 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 while she looks out that window in hope.

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

This painting was exhibited at the Bilan d’art Contemporian gallery in Montmartre Paris as part of Aristes du Sud de la France (Artists from the South of France) Exhibition. An article about the Aristes du Sud de la France exhibition that appeared in the La Revue Moderne – des art et dela vie – July 1979 (below) which 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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