This painting has been in my family for awhile (10ish years) and no one has a clue who painted it. Name on the bottom left says A. CHAIX 1899 BUT THERES NOTHING. Dad thinks its a portrait of mark twain.
Auguste Chaix (French, 1860 - 1922)
also not of mark twain. nose is completely different, twain's mustache drooped, and he hated the french...
I think you got the right artist but man.... this might be Mark twain. He was in France in the 1890s studying Joan of arc.