Property from the Collection of the Late Paula and Don Gaston

Jean Béraud

Fiacre, Place de la Concorde

Auction Closed

January 27, 10:47 PM GMT

Estimate

80,000 - 120,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Collection of the Late Paula and Don Gaston

Jean Béraud

French

1849 - 1935

Fiacre, Place de la Concorde

signed Jean Béraud. (bottom center)

oil on panel

panel: 15 by 12¾ in.; 38.1 by 32.3 cm

framed: 24½ by 20¾ in.; 62.2 by 52.7 cm

The following is kindly provided by Simon Parkes. This work on panel has no reinforcements on the reverse. The paint layer appears to be clean and varnished. The work should certainly be hung in its current state. Light retouches addressing a small amount of weakness can be seen around the extreme edges when the work is examined under ultraviolet light. These appear to be the only retouches, despite some of the original color in the shadows of the foreground showing strongly under ultraviolet light. The work should be hung as is.

In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.

NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Paul Wallraf, London
Jane Abdy, London
Private collection
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 24 April, 2002, lot 95
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

Patrick Offenstadt, Jean Beraud 1849-1935, The Belle Époque: A Dream of Times Gone By, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 1999, pp. 128-129, no. 91, illustrated

London, M. Newman Gallery, 1963, no. 2

Intrigued by all aspects of la vie parisienne, Béraud became its scrupulous and devoted observer. He was the quintessential chronicler of Belle Époque Paris. He was acclaimed by his Salon habitués for his charm and wit, and by an admiring public. The present work is typical of his paintings of fashionable Parisian boulevards, which include various members of society, including here a mendicant at right.

Béraud travelled the boulevards of Paris in a mobile studio, a converted carriage designed specifically so that he might observe the often unnoticed, fleeting incidents of city life first hand, much in the way that Charles-François Daubigny and later Claude Monet would paint from boats outfitted as floating studios. The inspiration for Fiacre, Place de la Concorde may well have come as Béraud toured the city in this way.

Béraud's figures possess individual expressions but remain psychologically ambiguous, inviting the viewer to speculate how the protagonists relate, and whether the fiacre, the small four-wheeled carriage, is arriving at or leaving the scene.