LOUIS ANQUETIN | Femme au bord de l'eau

Private collection, France
Thence by descent to the present owner

Paris, Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1890, no. 7, illustrated in the catalogue p. 126
Paris, Galerie le Barc de Boutteville, Deuxième exposition des peintres impressionnistes et symbolistes, 1892, no. 10
Paris, Galerie Brame & Lorenceau, Anquetin, La passion d'être peintre, 1991, no. 10, illustrated p. 37

Ernest Hochede, 'Le Champs de Mars' in Brelan de Salon 1890, Paris, 1890, p. 203
Antoine Jules, 'Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts', in Art et Critique, June 28, 1890, p. 48

The canvas is lined. Examination under UV light reveals small lines and spots of retouching in places, predominately a curved line of retouching (approx. 3 cm wide) to the lower right quadrant, a few spots of retouching to the model's hair and back, other small lines of retouching towards the upper right and left corners and an intermittent line of retouching along the extreme edges relating to frame rubbing. There appears to be a small spot of restoration to the canvas (approx. 1.5 cm wide) on the right part of the woman's face, visible on the reverse. Close inspection reveals hairline lines of stable craquellure throughout the composition. This work is in overall good condition.
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This portrait of remarkably fresh colour dates from 1889 and is one of the rare known paintings from the historical and founding period of Cloisonism in Louis Anquetin’s career which began in the spring of 1887 and came to an end in the winter of 1889-90. It marks a period of common research between Louis Anquetin and Emile Bernard inspired above all by their fascination with Japanese prints. In Femme au bord de l’eau, a deep blue contour thus defines areas of bright colour planes. It also evolves from the innovatory principle of suggestive colour which consists in structuring the painting through one dominant colour, here a blue-green. The influence of this principle on the symbolic content that many artists would later give to colour is undeniable.

“Anquetin had the idea of this principle in his parents’ house where there was a door with coloured glass panes. He realized that the impression of the landscape behind, changed with  each square of colour. The blue gave a cold feeling, the yellow a warm feeling, the red of twilight. He thus had the idea of applying this principle to his paintings by using the monochrome. In Anquetin’s mind, this principle should suggest differences in climate. […] Paintings which from 1888 employed  the colour stance of Van Gogh and Gauguin and were to influence an entire generation of contemporary painting, originate in Anquetin’s vigourous and unitary monochrome as the circumstances prove.” (Frédéric Destremau, Louis Anquetin ou la passion d’être peintre, Paris, 1991, p. 107).

The influence of cloisonism was thus visible in the works of the Pont-Aven artists and later with the Nabis. In the captivating face of Femme au bord de l’eau the features closely recall a number of female portraits later painted by the artist Maurice Denis.

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Galerie Brame & Lorenceau.