Théo van Rysselberghe

Estimate

150,000 - 200,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Théo van Rysselberghe
Soleil couchant à Ambleteuse
Signed with the artist's monogram (lower left)
Gouache and watercolor on artist's board
13 1/4 by 19 7/8 in.
33.6 by 50.5 cm

Provenance

Sale: Horta, Brussels, May 1984, lot 576
Private Collection, Belgium

Exhibited

Weimar, Von Payern, Deutsche und französische Impressionism un neo-impressionism, 1903
Brussels, Galerie Grioux, Rétrospective Théo van Rysselberghe, 1927, no. III-2
Marcq-en-Baroeul, Fondation Septentrion, Chefs-d'oeuvre néo-impressionnistes, no 47

Literature

Théo van Rysselberghe, Letter to Henry van de Velde, 19 December 1903
G. van Zype, "Théo van Rysselberghe," Annuaire de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, Brussels, 1932
Ronald Feltkamp, Théo van Rysselberghe, 1862-1926, Brussels, 2003, no. 1899-013 , illustrated p. 323 and in color p. 61

Catalogue Note

Théo Van Rysselberghe was one of the few followers of Seurat and Signac who fully mastered their chromatic discoveries of applying paint in small dabs of complementary and contrasting color.

Soleil couchant à Ambleteuse is an impressive example of the artist’s technical command showcasing his mature style. “About 1900, Van Rysselberghe’s art relaxed. The colorist had gradually left behind the orthodoxy of neo-impressionism. He was still ‘separating,’ but in a less methodical manner. His brush-stroke was becoming larger. He was manipulating the brush and matching pure color tones to each other with a new freedom. He was moving away from the technique of light-painting while preserving its spirit; he seemed no longer to consult anything but his instinct and his senses in the choice of tone and strength of color, and in the disposition of strokes.” (Paul Fierens, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Brussels, 1937, p. 27)

Executed in 1899, this peaceful landscape affords a view of Le Fleuve de la Slack which empties into "La Manche" (English Channel) south of Calais, not far from the Belgian border. The present work is a study for the final version painted in oil. (Fig. 1) Born in Ghent in 1862, van Rysselberghe became a founding member of Les XX in 1884. Les XX was a group of twenty of the artists who had been rejected by the Salon in Brussels in 1883. They united to establish a new exhibiting body, which rapidly assumed a position at the forefront of the European avant-garde. Van Rysselberge executed his earliest Neo-Impressionist paintings in 1888, two years after his first contact with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, but it was not until 1889 that he fully embraced the new style. Active as both a painter and as Octave Maus’ second-in-command at Les XX, van Rysselberghe was one of the principal emissaries between Brussels and Paris.

Fig. 1 Théo Van Rysselberghe, Soleil couchant à Ambleteuse, oil on canvas, 1899, Private Collection