19th Century European Art
19th Century European Art
Property from a Private Collection, The Netherlands
Auction Closed
January 31, 04:23 PM GMT
Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Private Collection, The Netherlands
JEAN BÉRAUD
French
1849 - 1935
SCÈNE DU BAL
signed Jean Beraud (lower left)
oil on canvas
10¾ by 13⅞ in.
27.4 by 35.3 cm
Private Collection
Acquired from the above in 2011
During his years spent exhaustively sketching a variety of characters and fashionable spaces from a hansom cab, Jean Béraud recorded countless quotidian scenes of bustling grands boulevards, parks, markets and theatres. In addition to crowded public spaces, Béraud also painted private apartments and salons. The artist was known in society as a perfect gentleman who was always impeccably dressed; he was, as Marcel Proust described, “a charming creature, sought in vain, by every social circle” (quoted in Patrick Offenstadt, Jean Béraud 1849-1935, The Belle Époque: A Dream of Times Gone By, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 1999, p. 7). His social calendar was always full with invitations from Paris’ most fashionable set, which allowed him to attend private balls, concerts and gatherings.
As an invited guest, Béraud had special access to these grand events, where the chic attendees were illuminated by gaslights in expansive, mirrored ballrooms. The artist observed and recorded the spectacle of these luxurious interiors, the latest fashions for women created by the visionary Charles Worth, and a full spectrum of high society in works such as his ambitious, frieze-like Une soirée (1878, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, fig. 1). The figures in Une soirée can be identified as members of the social elite, so it is possible that it is based on an evening in the artist’s exciting social life. In addition to capturing the splendor of music-filled, glittering parties, as depicted in Une soirée, Béraud was also drawn, as Offenstadt remarks, “to observe what is happening around the spectacle and behind the scenes; to investigate like a journalist, and not to be content with what immediately strikes the eye...Whether the assembly is calm or agitated, [the artist] detects the insistent glances and roguish airs. Mutual attraction finds expression in words and glances; Béraud records the lovers who stand apart from the crowd in a salon, amid the hubbub of a ball” (Offenstadt, p. 173).
In Scène du bal, Béraud is situated in the home’s petit salon while the colorful ball, full of dancing and spirited conversations is seen through the doorway. Though equally as stylish as the ballroom with its contemporary Barbizon paintings in gilt frames and marble sculptures, this space is the perfect setting for a peek into Parisian high society, where guests can converse with more ease. The group of elegantly dressed, animated men by the fireplace are locked in conversation or debate, while a man and a woman share a quieter exchange nearer to the doorway.
Béraud's keen eye for style extends beyond women's fashion in Scène du bal. The artist has given pride of place to a group of men around the fireplace dressed in suits. Men’s evening wear was seldom depicted in Impressionist scenes of modern Paris because it was considered uninteresting and monotonous, merely a neutral background to showcase the brilliance, exquisiteness and meticulous detail of women’s fashion (Gloria Groom, “Spaces of Modernity,” in Impressionism, Fashion & Modernity, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 2012, p. 183). Here the female guest’s pink gown adorned with lace and red flowers punctuates a long line of uniform black and white. An 1870s Paris guidebook for men noted that the man is “the lining of the jewelry box against which the eternal diamond stands out…He allows her to sing the symphony of white, pink, and green, as a solo” (Guide sentimental de l’étranger dans Paris, pp. 83-4, quoted in Philippe Thiébaut, “An Ideal of Virile Urbanity,” Impressionism, Fashion & Modernity, exh. cat., p. 137).
In a certificate dated November 3, 2003, Patrick Offenstadt confirmed the authenticity of this lot and that it will be included in his forthcoming supplement to the Jean Béraud critical catalogue.