THE GILDED AGE REVISITED: PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTION
Jean Béraud
LE PARC MONCEAU
LOT SOLD.
225,000 USD
Details & Cataloguing
Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale
|
New York
New York
Jean Béraud
1849 - 1935
LE PARC MONCEAU
Signed Jean Bèraud and dated Xbre 1887 (lower right)
Oil on panel
9 1/8 by 12 7/8 in.
23.2 by 32.7 cm
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
Oil on panel
Painted in October 1887.
9 1/8 by 12 7/8 in.
23.2 by 32.7 cm
Provenance
Madame H. Antoine-May (acquired by 1933)
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 18, 1983, lot 21
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London
Acquired from the above
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 18, 1983, lot 21
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London
Acquired from the above
Exhibited
Paris, Exposition du Cercle de l’Union artistique, 1888, n.n.
Paris, L’Union interalliée, Exposition des cent portraits, 1922, no. 13 (titled Portrait de M.A.M. et de ses fils)
Paris, Palais du Louvre, Pavillon de Marsan, Le Décor de la vie sous la IIIe République de 1870 à 1900, 1933, no. 23 (titled Monsieur Antoine-May et ses fils)
Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Jean Béraud, Peintre de la vie parisienne, 1936-37, no. 23, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Portrait de M. Antoine-May et de ses fils (Devant la grille du parc Monceau))
London, Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., Exhibition of 19th and 20th Century French Paintings, 1983, no. 2, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, L’Union interalliée, Exposition des cent portraits, 1922, no. 13 (titled Portrait de M.A.M. et de ses fils)
Paris, Palais du Louvre, Pavillon de Marsan, Le Décor de la vie sous la IIIe République de 1870 à 1900, 1933, no. 23 (titled Monsieur Antoine-May et ses fils)
Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Jean Béraud, Peintre de la vie parisienne, 1936-37, no. 23, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Portrait de M. Antoine-May et de ses fils (Devant la grille du parc Monceau))
London, Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., Exhibition of 19th and 20th Century French Paintings, 1983, no. 2, illustrated in the catalogue
Literature
"Les Expositions des Cercles," in L’Artiste, 1888, vol. CXXVII, no. 1, p. 190
"Les Oeuvres et les Hommes," in Le Correspondant, Paris, 1888, vol. 150, p. 728
Auguste Dalligny, "L’Exposition du Cercle de l’Union artistique," in Le Journal des arts, February 14-17, 1888, p. 1
Ernest Hoschedé, "Exposition de l’Union Artistique," in L’Événement, February 15, 1888, p. 3
Paul Mantz, "Exposition du Cercle de l’Union artistique," in Le Temps, February 28, 1888, p. 3
Louis de Fourcaud, "À travers les expositions," in La Revue illustrée, April 1, 1888, pp. 247-48, illustrated p. 245
Patrick Offenstadt, Jean Béraud 1849-1935, The Belle Époque: A Dream of Times Gone By, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 1999, no. 5, illustrated p. 89
"Les Oeuvres et les Hommes," in Le Correspondant, Paris, 1888, vol. 150, p. 728
Auguste Dalligny, "L’Exposition du Cercle de l’Union artistique," in Le Journal des arts, February 14-17, 1888, p. 1
Ernest Hoschedé, "Exposition de l’Union Artistique," in L’Événement, February 15, 1888, p. 3
Paul Mantz, "Exposition du Cercle de l’Union artistique," in Le Temps, February 28, 1888, p. 3
Louis de Fourcaud, "À travers les expositions," in La Revue illustrée, April 1, 1888, pp. 247-48, illustrated p. 245
Patrick Offenstadt, Jean Béraud 1849-1935, The Belle Époque: A Dream of Times Gone By, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 1999, no. 5, illustrated p. 89
Catalogue Note
Known for hastily sketching Parisian people and places from a hansom cab, Jean Béraud often depicted anonymous city dwellers going about their daily business. What is remarkable about the present work is that the main subject is not a nameless flâneur in the crowd but Béraud’s close friend, Monsieur Antoine-May, who is shown walking his sons home from school. Antoine-May, dressed fashionably in a top hat with umbrella in hand, follows closely behind the smartly dressed boys as they traipse across the rain soaked pavement. Béraud's composition recalls his friend and contemporary Edgar Degas' Place de la Concorde (Viscount Lepic and His Daughters); see fig. 1). In Le Parc Monceau, the boys appear spirited and boisterous in contrast to their rather stoic father who keeps a watchful eye. In an 1888 review of the Exposition du Cercle de l’Union artistique published in L’Artiste, a critic observed, "these three small portraits, signed Béraud, have a personal note and a perfect precision" ("Les Expositions des Cercles," op. cit., p. 190). Observing from a distance, it is as if Béraud presents a snapshot of a random urban scene, albeit one steeped in intimacy. In singling his friend and his two children out from the crowd, he has created three small portraits in a single composition.
As Patrick Offenstadt remarks, "the Paris Béraud records is one where people enjoy themselves, making good use of the capital’s many resources. He also focuses on modern Paris, proud of its broad streets, its architecture and its élan…" (Patrick Offenstadt, op. cit., p. 85). The Parc Monceau, the entrance to which is marked by a grille that surrounds a colonnaded rotunda, seen here, is at once an important historical site and a distinctly modern space, located in the 8th Arrondissement of Paris (see fig. 2). Designed as an English-style garden for Philippe d’Orléans in the late-eighteenth century, it was the first park in the city to be reenvisioned and restored by Baron Haussmann during the Second Empire. The Parc Monceau was a favorite subject of Claude Monet, who painted six different views of this park in both 1876 and 1878. Perhaps the most iconic of the six is The Parc Monceau currently in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which focuses on the park as a space for fashionable Parisians at leisure.
Suggested Lots
Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale
|
New York
New York
