Louis Anquetin

Édouard Borderie, Paris
Bernard & Betty French, United Kingdom (acquired from the above circa 1946)
Cyril Lavenstein, United Kingdom (acquired from the above in 1953)
Acquired from the above in 1974

In good condition. The sheet of paper supporting this drawing is attached at the edges on all sides to a board, to a depth of approximately 8cm. The condition of the sheet is very good with no darkening or damages, just some slight horizontal undulations due to its attachment to the board. The extreme edges of this pastel are scuffed on all sides and the pastel has darkened in some areas at the edges, particularly at the foot and in the grey on the right-hand side. Generally the pastel medium is bright and has no surface scuffing. The above condition report has been provided by Jane McAusland FIIC an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. For further information please contact the Impressionist & Modern Art Department at +1 212 606 7360
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Louis Anquetin arrived in Paris in 1882 and began studying at Léon Bonnat’s studio, where he met Henri Toulouse Lautrec, before moving into the studio of Fernand Cormon and befriending Emile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh.  His striking appearance and artistic skill established him as one of the leading lights of the Parisian artistic and literary avant-garde.  As was later noted in an important volume on Post Impressionism: "he established a reputation as a brilliant, innovatory artist and leader of a café-cabaret circle centered on Aristide Bruant's Le Mirliton in Montmartre... His subject matter included townscapes, café-cabaret scenes, nudes, the racecourse and fashionable women: he absorbed and discarded with equal speed styles derived from Lautrec and Renoir" (John House & Mary Ann Stevens, Post-Impressionism, Cross-Currents in European Painting, London, 1979, p. 28).

During his inventive career, Anquetin's work incorporated and built upon a number of influences and styles, ranging from his early studio colleagues to Edgar Degas and Japanese prints. Yet his works ended up being entirely his own, and Anquetin was hailed by a contemporary critic Edouard Dujardin as the founder of the important movement called Cloisonnism.  With its flat regions of color and thick, black contour outlines, Cloisonnism could be considered a reaction against the movement toward Pointillism—a style at the opposite end of the spectrum.

It was after several important 1888 exhibitions, including the Salon des Independants and Les XX in Brussels, that Dujardin put into words the theory of the movement, its ties to Symbolist writings, and Anquetin’s central role in it.  Writings of the day often addressed the new medium of photography, and why artists would still wish to use pastel and paint to record fleeting impressions of places and people who could now be captured on film.  Of course, the advent of photography and the critical thought that accompanied its arrival only led to further creative advances for many artists, including Anquetin. As Dujardin wrote in 1888: “Why retrace the thousands of insignificant details the eye perceives?  One should select the essential trait and reproduce it.  Or, even better, produce it.  An outline is sufficient to represent a face.  Scorning photography, the painter will set out to retain, with the smallest possible number of characteristic lines and coulours, the intimate reality, the essence of the object he selects ‘(E Dujardin, ‘Le Cloissonisme’, in Revue Indépendante, Paris, May 19, 1888).

Dating from 1889, the present work records just such a fleeting moment, and also seems to capture the essence of the artist’s chosen subject.  The central figure, with her flaming red hair, strongly resembles Juliette Vary, one of the artist's favorite models who he painted repeatedly (see fig. 1).  She was the daughter of a neighbor in Montmartre, aged just 18 at the time of this work’s execution.  The pastel formerly had a backboard that was inscribed Juliette, though the records about the work's subject are not entirely definitive. 

This work is representative of a dialogue that Anquetin and his peers had entered, often debating critical theory late into the night in the new haunts of the artistic community being established in Anquetin’s neighborhood, Montmartre.  In 1889, the same year as the present work, Anquetin entered The Exhibition at the Café des Arts , arranged by Paul Gauguin on the walls of a café owned by Mr Volpini, just outside the gates of the Exposition Universelle.  Though the artists advertised and printed a catalogue, this show of Paintings by the Impressionist and Synthetist Group (Peintures du Groupe Impressioniste et Synthétiste) was a commercial failure.  However, it helped to solidify Anquetin’s position as an important and relevant artist, and allowed him to participate in the debates shaping the critical theory of the day.

In the present work, the artist has chosen for his subject not the bourgeois ladies who strolled Paris à la mode, but two authentic denizens of the streets of Montmartre. Their off the rack fashions and unpolished accessories mark them as less elegant members of society, but also serve to bring their charm to life.  The exquisite, shimmering surface of the pastel enlivens the work; the purple ribbon and velvet bodice in particular highlighting the artist's mastery of the medium.  Here Anquetin once again proves his ability to bring to life these fleeting moments from the boulevards of Haussman’s Paris at the end of the nineteenth century.