Gaston la Touche

Galerie Nieszawer, Paris
Bury Street Gallery, London (acquired by 1979) 
Private Collection, London

London, Bury Street Gallery, 1979, no. 4, illustrated in the catalogue 

Selina Baring Maclennan, Gaston La Touche: A Painter of Belle Époque Dreams, Suffolk, 2009, illustrated in color pl. 38

The canvas has been lined. Under UV light: several very fine and minor strokes of inpainting are visible, primarily to the top left and top right of the background. A layer of varnish is difficult to read through. The work is in good condition.
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Born in Saint-Cloud in 1854, Gaston La Touche demonstrated his artistic talent even in early childhood. After over a dozen attempts to have his work accepted into the Salon, in 1875 he was able to exhibit some etchings and a medallion of the actor Got. Throughout his career he would execute portraits of artists, writers and actors of the day including Rodin, Bracquemond, Zola and Manet. Without doubt two of the most important influences on La Touche were Félix Bracquemond and Édouard Manet, the latter of whom was instrumental in persuading the younger artist to abandon his somber palette in favor of a new spectrum of color, resulting in a shift from realism to that of ethereal serenity. La Touche's resulting output exhibited the influences of Fragonard and Watteau, Rococo artists held in the highest regard in the previous century.

À l’opéra is a stunning example of La Touche’s depictions of turn-of-the-century social events including masked balls, theater, opera, dance and outdoor leisure pursuits. Writing about À l’opéra, Selina Baring Maclenna states: “France threw itself into a frenzy of hedonism in the last decade of the nineteenth century, which was heightened by a fear of what the new century might bring. Music and theatre were all important and artists and writers were to feast on the subject in those last years. La Touche was no exception…. La Touche depicted elements of theatrical character interplay in the two works entitled À Llopéra [the present work and fig. 1]. It was a world full of intrigue and subtle trysts were being played out in the shadows of the foyers and opera boxes; these scenarios were just as fascinating as the performances on stage” (Selina Baring Maclenna, op. cit., p. 57).