A Step Back in Time - The Paris of Eugène Atget

Although the French photographer Eugène Atget (1857-1927) considered himself simply a man who took pictures, his stature in the spectrum of early 20th Century art is significantly more important.  Working with a large format wooden bellows camera on a tripod, he studiously photographed the everyday scenes of Paris and its environs and sold these pictures as documentation for artists, publishers, architects and interior designers to use as reference and inspiration in their own work.

In the 1920s these photos caught the attention of avant-garde painters Man Ray, Matisse and Picasso who saw in them the essence of Surrealism and Atget became recognized as an artist rather than a camera person.

Not that this new status changed him or the kinds of photographs he took but after his death the American photographer Berenice Abbott, a long time champion of his work, acquired much of his archive which she ultimately sold to New York's Museum of Modern Art.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Eugène Atget is now firmly ensconced on the pedestal "Master of Photography".  His photographs are sought after by collectors, bring high prices at auctions, and have been the subject of major museum exhibitions including one on view right now at MoMA.

"Eugène Atget:  Documents pour artistes" is a nod to the photographer's stated mission as he lugged his camera to capture the perfect images of shop windows, street people, statues and staircases in an effort to record the real Paris.  But far from merely recording people, places and things, these photographs captured the essence of the city.  Atget's mastery of composition and the long exposure give these pictures an ethereal, almost dreamlike, quality.

The exhibition is organized according to theme -  Surrogates and the Surreal comprising shop windows, street fairs and mannequins, the sights of the Fifth Arrondisement near the Pantheon, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Parc de Sceaux, People of Paris including prostitutes, vendors, rag pickers and gypsies, and finally Courtyards with their unique orientation between interior and exterior or private and public spaces.  There are over 100 photographs, most of them vintage, and most superb examples of Atget's unique style.  I was sorry not to see any works from his Versailles series but overall the show was very well curated and very interesting - especially to a Francophile like me!  Looking at these sepia toned photos made me think of a Paris of long ago but even though there may no longer be horse drawn carriages or organ grinders in the streets many sights have remained very much the same.

This tribute to the genius of Eugène Atget was the perfect send off as I leave for Paris this weekend.  I am looking forward to visiting my favorite places from print dealers to restaurants as well as an overnight jaunt to attend the opening of the 25th anniversary of TEFAF in Maastricht, Holland.  I hope you'll check back to see what's going on in Gaie Paris and I certainly hope you have a chance to see this marvelous photography show "Documents pour artistes" that will be on view at MoMA until April 9.  A très bientôt!

Looking at Laboureur

One of the most under-appreciated artists of the early 20th Century has always been, in my opinion, the French print maker Jean-Emile Laboureur. 

"Self Portrait", 1928

Born in Nantes in 1877, Laboureur found his professional calling at an early age, thanks in large part, to an acquaintanceship with Henri Toulouse-Lautrec who encouraged him to give up formal study and pursue his dream of being an artist.  He traveled through Europe visiting print rooms in museums and galleries while learning the print making techniques of wood block, etching and engraving.  In 1903, Laboureur expanded his horizons even farther and voyaged across the ocean to take up residence in New York City and later Pittsburgh, PA.  The energy and excitement of these burgeoning industrial cities were infectious and he recorded his observances of people and places in beautiful and poignant prints.

Laboureur's return to France in 1909 coincided with the emergence of Cubism, a movement he embraced with great enthusiasm.  Never overly intellectual, his images maintain an airy, natural quality made even more powerful by the stripped down simplicity of the Cubist line executed in etchings and woodblocks.  He recorded his experiences as an interpreter with the British Army during World War I by returning to his roots and the ease of literally "sketching" an image with a burin on discarded metal ammunition cases to create an engraving.  He was a devoted graphic artist - determined to create with or without a studio or equipment!

"Garçon au restaurant"

With the return of peace time, Laboureur shifted his attention from capturing vignettes and portrayals to the esteemed French tradition of book illustration - the livre d'artiste - a specialty he excelled in eventually leaving a body of work comprising over fifty titles.  He also traded bachelorhood for marriage, settling down at the age of 42 with his beloved Suzanne and they enjoyed a happy family life with two children living and working in Brittany.  Sadly, in 1939 Jean-Emile Laboureur contracted a disease that left him paralyzed and he spent his last few years unable to pursue his art and he died in 1943.

Despite professional accolades and reasonable success during his lifetime Laboureur never really achieved what his followers thought he deserved.  Certainly his prints and books are coveted by a very specialized group of collectors but it always surprised me that his works, full of charm and wit, seemed rather under valued.  However all this started to change last October with the auction in Paris of the Estate of his son, Sylvain.  Devoted to preserving the legacy of his father, Sylvain Laboureur had compiled a three-volume catalogue raisonné listing individual prints, livres d'artiste and paintings, drawings and watercolors.  With his passing, the family's private collection of works was put up for sale and the results were astounding.

I was fortunate to be able to preview and attend that auction and I was overwhelmed with the plethora of marvelous esoteric lots for sale.  I had high hopes of acquiring a special example of a print accompanied by a preparatory drawing and maybe even the copper plate on which it was etched.  It became clear very quickly that despite relatively low estimates there were no bargains to be had and I sat in the audience as lot after lot was sold for prices that precluded me from even raising my paddle to bid.

"Chez la floriste", 1920

This Thursday I have a second chance as Swann Galleries here in Manhattan is offering a single-owner sale of prints, drawings and illustrated books by Jean-Emile Laboureur.  The collector remains anonymous but obviously had a passion for these works as he or she assembled a large and diverse group of exceptional examples.  I previewed the auction yesterday and will attend the sale again with hopes of picking up a special print or two to add to my own small collection.  Whether or not I succeed, it is a great pleasure to see such a comprehensive ensemble on public view and very satisfying to see this long overlooked artist finally getting his due.

The New Life of "Washington Crossing The Delaware"

In honor of Presidents' Day and the 280th birthday of America's first Commander in Chief, and to celebrate the new American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I'd like to take a look at a spectacular work of art that depicts a pivotal event in the nation's history.

George Washington is revered in history not only for his sound leadership as the first President of the newly established United States of America, but also for his brave command during the American Revolutionary War.  It is to commemorate one of the most daring and dangerous episodes in this war that the painting in question was created and the result is as majestic and impressive as the man and his legend deserves.

I am talking, of course, about "Washington Crossing the Delaware" as interpreted in gigantic scale by the German/American artist Emanuel Leutze in 1851.  Leutze's portrayal of the General and his men braving the ice choked waters of the Delaware River en route to attacking, and ultimately defeating, the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas night of 1776, is a testament to the heroics inspired by the future President.  It is a big picture in every way.  Physically, the canvas measures an astounding 149 x 255 inches making the people and the event seem larger than life.  Graphically it is a tour de force where the viewer can almost feel the bitter cold of the ice and wind but is stirred by the fervor and bravery of the warriors.  Never mind the fact that the crossing actually occurred in the dead of night and no soldier could have survived in such a flimsy and overloaded vessel.  And George Washington himself, appearing invincible as he stood in the bow, was probably holding on for dear life as he was tossed about on the choppy, frigid, water!

Despite these discrepancies, the painting is impressive and it was sold to a New York collector for the princely sum of $10,000 shortly after its completion.  At the time, it was trimmed in a massive gilded frame designed by the artist to compliment his work.  After four decades, the painting was auctioned to a new owner who donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where it went on display in April of 1897 and remained the Met's property despite being moved around and even lent out to other institutions.  Now here comes the mystery.  Somewhere, somehow in the peregrinations of this painting, it became separated from its ornate custom frame and was displayed in a very uninspired gilded border that was no match for a work of this magnificence.

Fast forward to the 21st Century when the Metropolitan Museum begins a major renovation of its American Wing.  This was the impetus needed to take a good look at the centerpiece of the collection and take the opportunity to bring it back to the grandeur it deserved.  First a thorough cleaning from the conservation department and the icing on the cake - a new frame created to replicate the one lost.  In a collaboration with Manhattan based framer extraordinaire Eli Wilner, the Met and Wilner's master carver studied old installation photos that showed the painting in its original frame and recreated it exactly.  The result is magnificent.  1,400 lbs of wood in 9 sections laminated together and covered with 12,500 sheets of gold, have been carved with shields, stars, acanthus leaves and berries and crowned with an eagle holding arrows, flags and a ribbon with the inscription "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of countrymen". 

The Met re-opened its New American Wing in January of 2012 to much acclaim.  One of the stars of the show is the popular favorite "Washington Crossing the Delaware" once again resplendent and dominating Gallery 760 where it hangs.  Never mind that the sun was not shining nor the icebergs flowing on the Delaware River that cold night in 1776 - no one expected General Washington to succeed with this campaign either!  Emanuel Leutze's glorious rendition continues to inspire!

"Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting" at The Frick

 One of my very favorite places in the City of New York is the small but sumptuous Frick Collection on Fifth Avenue at 70th Street.  Housed in the former mansion of industrial magnate Henry Clay Frick, the museum boasts an unparalleled collection of European paintings and sculpture, decorations and furniture displayed almost as it was when Mr. Frick and his family were in residence.

Mr. Frick was blessed with both good taste and the wherewithal to indulge it.  His home became a showplace of masterpieces by Constable, Fragonard, della Francesca, Gainsborough, El Greco, Hals, Rembrandt, Turner, Van Dyck, Vermeer, Whistler and many others.  I have been visiting The Frick for nearly thirty years and am happy to say that the experience has been consistently wonderful.  I look forward to seeing the fanciful Boucher Room with its series of paintings of The Arts and Sciences adorning the walls, I love the masculine oak paneled Living Hall with the marvelous Bellini oil of "St Francis in the Desert" and Holbein's portraits of Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, and I am delighted with the brand new Portico Gallery, the first new gallery in 35 years created quite simply and effectively by enclosing the garden portico with glass and presto - a beautiful venue for displaying sculpture and porcelain while retaining the original spirit of the architecture.

While tradition and constancy are hallmarks of The Frick, the institution is by no means a dinosaur!  The directors know that they have to bring patrons back for repeat visits and to this end from time to time they mount special exhibitions relating to the permanent collection.  Often these shows are presented on the lower level in two little galleries suitable for smaller format works.  But for a limited time and for a very special reason, this winter's limited engagement is installed in the elegant East Gallery.  In an exhibit five years in the making, The Frick, in collaboration with some very important national and international institutions, presents "Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting" a look at the French painter Pierre Auguste Renoir's commitment to the large-scale format.

Inspired by "The Promenade", purchased by Henry Clay Frick in 1914 and part of the museum's permanent collection, the curators assembled nine paintings all in the vertical, full length format that Renoir explored from the mid-1870's to mid-1880's, the period in which Impressionism really began to bloom.  The result is a blockbuster exhibition!  To stand in the center of that beautiful gallery literally surrounded by the best of the best - nine big, bold and beautiful paintings by a master of the aesthetic is stunning to say the least.

It was interesting to read that Renoir had apprenticed with a manufacturer of blinds for export to missionary churches and painted full length images of the Madonna and Child in imitation of stained glass windows.  This, coupled with his early experience painting murals on walls of cafés, gave him an excellent grounding in grand scale canvas'.  Add to that proficiency his keen observation of fashion and social mores and you have life-size portrayals that capture much more than initially meets the eye.  For instance, the clothing worn by each of the three men in the "Dancing Couples" trilogy, very clearly depicts his position in society, and the fact that in "Dance at Bougival" neither the man nor the woman is wearing gloves and actually touching hands is a scandal indeed!

I thoroughly enjoyed this concise but impactive exhibition and judging by the line of people queued up to get in to the museum, I am not alone!  "Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting" is on view until May 13th.

A Quick Trip to London

Sometimes quick trips that come up without much warning are much more fun than ones that have long been planned for.  So when the opportunity to go to London for a long weekend presented itself I didn't have to be persuaded that it would be a good idea.

 Of course, I hadn't anticipated that I would be there for the snow event of the season - a whopping two inches of the white stuff that managed to curtail half of the flight activity at Heathrow Airport and was the talk of the town!  The reality is that no one seems to have salt or a snow shovel so the sidewalks and streets quickly became a slushy, slippery mess, but the sight of Green Park covered in a blanket of snow on a Sunday morning was magical indeed.

Even though I missed the Super Bowl the year the New York Giants were playing, I felt fortunate to be in England on the actual day of Queen Elizabeth II's sixty year anniversary as monarch.  Born and raised in Canada, I grew up singing "God Save the Queen" every morning in school and am an unapologetic fan of the monarchy.  Of course, my example has always been this Queen who continues to serve her country and subjects indefatigably with as much devotion in her Diamond Jubilee year as when she assumed the throne in 1952.  Accession Day 2012 was an appropriately sober preamble to the festivities scheduled throughout the Commonwealth culminating with The Central Weekend, June 2-5, in London.

Unfortunately it was an odd between-exhibitions season for the London museums.  I just missed the blockbuster "Leonardo da Vinci:  Painter at the Court of Milan" at the National Gallery and was not quite in time for "Abstract Masterpieces in Parallel" at The Courtauld Institute of Art.  I was able to see the re-creation of the Russian avant-garde monument "Tatlin's Tower" still standing in the courtyard of the Royal Academy (see above) although the installation was supposed to have been dismantled at the end of January.  And I was also able to visit the hugely popular exhibition celebrating England's most beloved living artist, David Hockney, also at the Royal Academy.

"David Hockney RA:  A Bigger Picture" focus' on the artist's depiction of landscapes with an emphasis on very recent works.  Although born in West Yorkshire and very much a British artist, Hockney is also adored by Americans for the years spent in California and New York.  The time spent in the United States inspired both early and later landscapes, the Grand Canyon (see above) and Yosemite respectively, both painted in a massive scale appropriate to the vistas.

Now in his mid seventies, Hockney has returned to his roots but with a decidedly 21st Century slant.  His most recent works are studies of his local surroundings - the trees and forests of Woldgate, East Yorkshire - drawn by the artist on his iPad then printed and mounted on stretchers like paintings (see above).  The repeating images are fascinating and allow a complete study of the subject with an immediacy that painstaking drawing and painting cannot.  A massive 32 canvas oil created especially for this exhibition anchors the gallery and provides a deeply personal view of Hockney's private landscape.

Other highlights of this whirlwind visit would have to include a fabulous couple of hours at the National Gallery viewing masterpieces from the 13th to the early 20th Centuries, the solemn high mass in the beautiful Victorian space of St. Paul's Knightsbridge, a small but excellent exhibition entitled "Arp is Art" at the Luxembourg Dayan Gallery on Savile Row, attending the evening Impressionist and Modern Art Auction featuring paintings from Elizabeth Taylor's collection at Christies, St. James's, and shopping the after Christmas sales in Mayfair!  It has been a fun few days here in London and a nice break from the February doldrums.  Cheerio!

And now for something completely different...

I know I sometimes overload my readers with posts about art and exhibitions in museums and galleries.  But today I have a totally different kind of show to tell you about!  Intrigued by a recent review in The Wall Street Journal I headed down to Chelsea to see what, exactly, was going on at the Dillon Gallery on West 25th Street and their current exhibition "Phantosmia --All But the Smell"!

In an unusual, to say the least, take on the typical gallery show, the artist, Christophe Laudamiel, is actually a perfumer and the exhibit consists of seven "scent sculptures", each enclosed in a little tent, and meant to evoke different feelings or emotions.  Visitors are instructed to breath normally, not sniff or inhale too deeply, and to cleanse each scent from the nose by smelling one's skin before proceeding to the next tent. 

With museum style labels at the entrance to each "scent sculpture" we were advised of the title of the fragrance “At Your Own Risk,” “Fear,” “Fragile,” “The Last Virgin,” The Monkey and the Banana” and “The Whip and the Orchid”, what it comprised and how it might make us feel.  An overall scent, "Remembrance of Things Lost", inspired by the life Marlene Dietrich no less, covers the open space.

As far as I could tell, the "point" of the show was purely an olfactory experience and an effort to raise the science of scent to an art form.  Mr. Laudamiel does make the point that present day perfumers are much more restricted with the ingredients they can use compared to the industry of several years ago.  With global regulations and a new awareness of allergic reactions, modern day fragrances are composed of more synthetic and fewer true exotic oils as esters.  The result, according to the artist, is a less pure product and a change in the essence of the trade from art to business.  With this show Mr Laudamiel aims to raise our awareness of the fragrance industry and indeed the role of scent in our lives.  "Phantosmia - All But the Smell" is a fleeting exhibition, much like the aromas that surround us, but certainly worth poking one's nose into!

The 58th Annual Winter Antiques Show

We have not had a very severe winter here in New York City.  In fact, compared to last year this winter has been practically balmy.  But finally Mother Nature sat up, realized it was the middle of January, time for the Winter Antiques Show and certainly time for some snow!  So with a suitable flourish for this most prestigious event, the temperatures fell, the winds picked up and suddenly we were enveloped in a proper winter storm!  Perfect timing, I thought, as I put on my brand new and as yet untested snow boots, and headed off to to enjoy the warm and elegant cocoon of the rare and wonderful art, furniture and objects filling the booths of the 73 dealers from the U.S. and Europe exhibiting at this, the 58th Annual Edition of the Winter Antiques Show.

As usual the wares presented ranged from the sublime to the bizarre, the practical to the extravagant, and everything in between.  From rare books to Oriental rugs, Fabergé enamel frames to North West Coast carved masks, from Delft porcelain to Shaker boxes there was something for everyone.

This show has always had an emphasis on Americana, but this year there seemed to be more diversification in both nationality and era.  While the term "antique" always implied "over 100 years old", that definition has been stretched to include photography and furniture and design up to the 1950s.  While this may irk the purists among us, it does make for an interesting variety of material for the visitor to enjoy.

And enjoy I did!  Almost without exception, every booth offered something marvelous to behold.  Like the Thomas Jefferson Autograph Letter Signed dated 1809 and discussing religious freedom in the new United States of America, on the stand of Kenneth W. Rendell, New York.  Or the fantastic turn of the century Japanese silk scroll by Ogata Gekkô, depicting "The Hell Courtesan with her retinue as skeletons in autumn" hanging at Joan B. Mirviss, New York.  Or a beautiful 17th Century English beadwork dressing box with three dimensional figures of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza embroidered in colorful glass beads on display at Elliott & Grace Snyder, Massachusetts.

If I had to pick a favorite piece I would have a tough time deciding between three very different items.  I loved the diamond and enamel "eye" brooch designed by Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí - a surprising find at A la Vieille Russie, New York.  I was fascinated by the 1870 Mississippi African American Pictographic Plantation desk/secretary with its wonderfully carved relief of tools and instruments covering every plane featured on the stand of Tillou Gallery, Connecticut.

  

Maybe it's a result of my heritage, but I think my favorite object at this year's show would have to be the wood block wallpaper panel entitled "Canada" printed in 1855 by Zuber Manufacture, France, as part of the series "Zones Terrestres".  This panoramic mural of a ship navigating the treacherous icebergs of the Great North is one of only two known examples and can be found with antique wallpaper specialist Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, Paris.

Before I knew it several hours had passed.  I had been so absorbed in the worlds of portrait miniatures, grandfather clocks, stained glass lamps, suits of armor, sailors' valentines and myriad other collectibles that I totally lost track of time!  It was another magical visit to the Winter Antiques Show - an annual delight of treasures and wonders and the perfect way to spend a January afternoon!