Adrien Dauzats

Sale: Vente Dauzats, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, February 1 - 4, 1869, no. 18
Private Collection, Paris
Galería Guillermo de Osma, Madrid
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1993

Ghislaine Plessier, Adrien Dauzats ou la tentation de l’Orient. Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Bordeaux, 1990, p. 172, no. 169

Painted circa 1836.

Adrien Dauzats was decisively involved in the creation of what would become on January 7, 1838 the Galerie Espagnole in the Louvre.  Taking advantage of the dire economic conditions of post-war Spain and of the Spanish government’s recent suppression of the monasteries, King Louis Philippe charged Baron Isidore Taylor to put together discreetly a collection of over 500 Spanish Old Masters.  Taylor, in turn, appointed the painters Dauzats and Pharamond Blanchard as his agents and connoisseurs for the task.  Between 1835 and 1837 they traveled ceaselessly throughout the country, becoming better acquainted with the artists of the Golden Age than almost any Frenchmen of the time.  During these travels, Dauzats, who was known for his precise paintings of exotic locales, made drawings, watercolors and oil sketches of Spanish sites, some of which were developed later into works for the Salon.  Between June 12 and 17, 1836, Dauzats was in the town of Antequera, sixty kilometers northwest of Málaga.  On that occasion, no doubt, he executed a drawing of the town’s main plaza (Paris, Private Collection) and this painting is based upon it.  Executed in the fresh and vibrant style of his oil sketches rather than the highly finished manner of his exhibited works, the painting was sold as lot 169 from the painter’s atelier following his death.