Louis Anquetin

Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 7, 2009, lot 68
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Japan, Gifu, French Paintings Immediately Preceding the 20th Century—Artistic Theories and Expressions of the Latter Half of the 1880s and 1890s, 1993, no. 79, illustrated in the catalogue

Louis Anquetin, La Passion d'être peintre (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Brame & Lorenceau, Paris, 1991, doc. 32, illustrated n.p.
Frédéric Destremeau, "Paul Tampier (1859-1940) élève à l'atelier Cormon" in Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, Paris, 1992, illustrated p. 202

The canvas is unlined. The canvas is gently buckled at upper and lower right and faint stretcher marks run horizontally through the center of the composition. The surface is nicely textured. A few faint lines of craquelure are visible within the thickest pigments, and a few pindot losses are visible to the extreme bottom left corner. Under UV light: strokes of inpainting are scattered throughout, most notably within the background at upper right, though also in other areas including the figure's hand and in a couple consolidated areas within his clothing. The work is in generally good condition.
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.

Louis Anquetin arrived in Paris in 1882 and began studying at Léon Bonnat’s studio, where he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, before moving into the studio of Fernand Cormon and befriending Émile Bernard, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Tampier, the subject of the present work (see fig. 2). Anquetin's striking appearance and artistic skill established him as one of the leading lights of the Parisian avant-garde. As was later noted in an important volume on Post Impressionism: "he established a reputation as a brilliant, innovatory artist and leader of a café-cabaret circle centered on Aristide Bruant's Le Mirliton in Montmartre... His subject matter included townscapes, café-cabaret scenes, nudes, the racecourse and fashionable women: he absorbed and discarded with equal speed styles derived from Lautrec and Renoir" (John House & Mary Ann Stevens, Post-Impressionism, Cross-Currents in European Painting, London, 1979, p. 28).

During his inventive career, Anquetin's work incorporated and built upon a number of influences and styles, ranging from his early studio colleagues to Edgar Degas and Japanese prints. Yet his works ended up being entirely his own, and Anquetin was hailed by a contemporary critic Edouard Dujardin as the founder of the important movement called Cloisonnism. With its flat regions of color and thick, black contour outlines, Cloisonnism could be considered a reaction against the movement toward Pointillism—a style at the opposite end of the spectrum.

It was after several important 1888 exhibitions, including the Salon des Indépendants and Les XX in Brussels, that Dujardin put into words the theory of the movement, its ties to Symbolist writings and Anquetin’s central role in it. Writings of the day often addressed the new medium of photography, and why artists would still wish to use pastel and paint to record fleeting impressions of places and people who could now be captured on film. Of course, the advent of photography and the critical thought that accompanied its arrival only led to further creative advances for many artists, including Anquetin. As Dujardin wrote in 1888: “Why retrace the thousands of insignificant details the eye perceives? One should select the essential trait and reproduce it. Or, even better, produce it. An outline is sufficient to represent a face.  Scorning photography, the painter will set out to retain, with the smallest possible number of characteristic lines and coulours, the intimate reality, the essence of the object he selects" (Edouard Dujardin, "Le Cloissonisme" in Revue Indépendante, Paris, May 19, 1888).