N08783

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Lot 27
  • 27

Charles Hermans

Estimate
1,000,000 - 1,500,000 USD
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Description

  • Charles Hermans
  • Bal Masqué
  • signed Hermans (lower right)
  • oil on canvas

  • 126 1/2 by 158 in.
  • 321.3 by 401.3 cm

Provenance

Joseph E. Temple, Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (given from the above in 1882 and sold, Sotheby's, New York, February 20, 1992, lot 78, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale

Exhibited

Paris, Salon, 1880, no. 1831
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (on exhibition as no. D418 from 1882 and until at least 1911 as Masked Ball at the Opera) 
Dixon Art Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee (on loan from the present owner circa 1995)

Literature

Ludovic Baschet, ed., L'Exposition des Beaux-Arts (Salon de 1880), Paris, 1880 (as Bal de l'Opéra)
Philippe de Chennevières, Le Salon de Peinture en 1880, Paris, 1880, p. 60
Louis Enault, Guide du Salon, Paris, 1880, p. 23
Mauirce du Seigneur, L'Art et les Artistes au Salon de 1880, Paris, 1880, pp. 60-1
Prof. Charles Carroll, The Salon, A Collection of the Choicest Paintings Recently Executed by Distinguished European Artists, New York, 1881, p. 158
"Art, Contemporary Belgian Painting," The American, April 15, 1882, p. 10
J. Eugene Reed, The Masterpieces of German Art Illustrated: Being a Biographical history of art in Germany and the Netherlands, from the earliest period to the present time, Philadelphia, 1882, vol. I, n.p., no. 28, (the engraving) illustrated
John Denison Champlin, Jr., ed., Cycolpedia of Painters and Paintings, New York, 1885-87, vol. 2, p. 245
Helen Weston Henderson, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and other Collections of Philadelphia, Boston, 1911, p. 167
Patrick and Viviane Berko, Dictionary of Belgian Painters born between 1750 & 1875, Brussels, 1981, p. 346

Condition

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: Given the scale of the work, the painting is in excellent condition. The canvas is un-lined but the tacking edges have been reinforced. There is little or no abrasion to the paint layer and although broadly painted by the artist in some places, the condition is lovely. There are a few structural damages; one in the dress of one of the two girls in red in the lower center where there is an "M" shaped tear and another in the top hat of the man above the same girls there is also a diagonal tear which has been repaired. There are very few isolated small losses which have been retouched. At present we have not closely examined any of the composition in the balcony but there appears to be no reason to believe that the condition here is any way different than it is in the remainder of the picture.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

When exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1880, the Brussels born and trained Charles Hermans' view of a Bal Masqué combined a recognizable venue, the luxurious theater of an opera house (its red and gold décor suggestive of the Paris Opéra though the gilded decoration also resembles that of Brussels' Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie), with an even more distinct social event, the masked balls that enlivened the winter season. The extravagant masked costume balls that were held throughout Paris, Brussels and other European cities during the six weeks before Ash Wednesday and the Lenten restriction were among the most talked about spectacles of the late nineteenth century.  From midnight until five o'clock in the morning, and for the price of a ticket, daring young women of the demi-monde (worldly, trend setting young women whose conduct or lack of family pedigree set them apart from the traditional social elite) could mix with men of aristocratic, financial, and political prominence who flocked to the events. At the opera house, the audience pit was cleared for dancing and the opera orchestra itself provided music for waltzes or mazurkas and even the controversial can-can. Women dressed as glamorized stevedores, shepherdesses, or in any other costume that revealed more of their figures than street dress permitted, and they danced with abandon - their reputations protected by small black domino masks that gave the illusion of anonymity.  Men, most frequently dressed in traditional evening clothes, might dance, but mostly they watched and hoped to arrange a post-ball rendezvous. 

The alluring abandon of the masked ball offered inexhaustible inspiration for late nineteenth century artists. With his monumental composition of a Bal Masqué, Hermans continued the tradition of depicting festive dances  that had been firmly established in the preceding decade. Earlier in his career, Hermans explored a similar subject with his L'Aube (1875, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique), depicting a group of party-goers, exhausted from a night of revelry, stumbling onto city streets past a group of disapproving workers preparing for a day of labor.  Critics applauded the social commentary of the urban scene painted on a monumental scale, most often reserved for history painting, and they suggested its realism "brought the influence of [Édouard] Manet into his works" (William Sharp and Elizabeth Amelia Sharp, Progress of Art in the Century, London, 1906, p. 281). The comparison to Manet is particularly apt when considering the artist's own depiction of a Masked Ball at the Opera of 1873 (fig. 1). Like Manet's work, Hermans' Bal Masqué brilliantly plays with compositional scale, cropped perspectives, and contrasting cool and warm colors to suggest the multi-layered connections of the various costumed or evening-dressed figures. Rather than the stately frieze-like arrangement of Manet's depiction of the ball, Hermans invites the viewer to be swept along great waves of partygoers from shadowy figures peering from the balconies, chattering revelers spilling over the mezzanines, and those in prime position along the crowded dance floor. When Manet painted the crowded old Paris Opéra galleries, the mass of top-hatted gentlemen, which includes journalists and friends, and even Manet himself, outnumbered the young women. Though the present work's ball's ratio still seems to favor the men, many of the women take a more active role in the game of "see-and-be-seen" as some go brazenly unmasked, dancing with abandon, falling into the arms of male companions, hiding a near-kiss behind a fan, or confidently assessing the best opportunities in reach for a dalliance.  While the pastoral costumes and exaggerated masks of some men are overtly fanciful, others' buttoned-up black jackets, smooth silk gloves, and glossy top hats disguise their true intentions as they covertly pursue en masse flirty female dancers in revealing low-cut scarlet costumes. The well-studied and distinctly painted faces of the gentlemen in the foreground suggest they are men the artist knew, though ultimately one is left to guess what banker or politician is flirting with what leading actress or society hostess among the crowds nearing evening's end.

Hermans' work perfectly illustrates American traveler Edward King's astonishment when describing the wild scene of the European masked ball, a place "where grave masks dance genteelly with grotesque figures; it is a mad whirlpool, wherein all that is graceful is cast away and unlimited licenses of attitude takes possession of the field. It is a salmagundi of all ages, classes, and conditions; an apotheosis of embracing of whirlings, of jumpings" (Edward King, My Paris, French Character Sketches, Boston, 1868, p. 78 as quoted in Robert L. Herbert, Impressionism, Art, Leisure, & Parisian Society, New Haven, 1988, p. 131).  Viewing Hermans' many happy guests would not have surprised a travel writer in Brussels who remarked that its masked balls evidenced a "pleasure-loving city" (Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger, Belgian Life in Town and Country, New York, 1904 p. 203).  Critics (particularly Americans) employed similar language when considering Bal Masqué at the Salon of 1880. Prof. Charles Carroll noted Hermans' painting as "loud... In the turmoil of people and things in his composition, we might pick out some well drawn types and episodes which show close observation" (Carroll, p. 158).  Meanwhile, The American noted the "prodigious size" of the "wonderfully clever" composition praising its "prevailing color of glowing red" in capturing the pleasurable frenzy of the scene.  Yet the writer considered if the composition's overall effect was "vulgar" meant to "attract the eye of the thoughtless world" ("Art, Contemporary Belgian Painting," p. 10). 

Though Hermans may not have intended his work to inspire debate, it was likely inevitable in his realistic, boisterous depiction of the masked ball (itself a somewhat controversial entertainment) and its guests sensual and suggestive narratives.  Bal Masqué's subject is undeniably compelling and attracted the attention of Joseph E. Temple, a collector, philanthropist, and a director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, soon after its Salon debut.  While it has yet to be determined how Temple acquired Bal Masqué, it was presented with other artworks to the Pennsylvania Academy in 1882 where it soon became listed in the city's guidebooks as a "must-see" (the Academy's stamp is still visible on the canvas' reverse).  Bal Masqué became further known through engravings and illustrated books allowing all interested to witness a scene "where the participant is oft times unable to realize the degree of extravagance or excess that prevails. The spirit of revelry is infectious, and when a large company yield themselves up to it, it becomes a sort of intoxication, during which prudence and propriety are relaxed and an abandon is indulged which on other occasions would be surprising, to say the least" (Reed, p. 203).

Please note this work is sold unframed.