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A Dystopia of Color Education in a Utopia of Color Experience
By Christopher Willard
Possibilities for color explorations in art are probably more ubiquitous now than any other time since mid-century when a brief, but intense, focus on the aesthetic side of color arose with the 1963 publication of Josef Albers' Interaction of Color. The heyday was short. Technology picked up color study on a serious level and because of that we now have the glowing phosphors of television and computer screens, metallic paints, fractals with their repeating color sequences, holograms, and four color process printing. When intertwined with the cesia, or visual signs, of flicker, sparkle, gloss, lustre, iridescence, luminosity, and filmic haze, such color experiences are greatly broadened. Our contemporary conceptions of color are further augmented by that chronic parasite called advertising that links color to desire for everything from the prismatic sparkle of a diamond to the amber glow of a beer.
Yet, beyond such semantic conditioning, associations based solely upon color are apt to suggest odd contradictions such as an adult bashing of a rounded purple dinosaur but an adult affinity for rounded purple cars.
All of these areas have provided grounds for artistic explorations. Students who have grown up familiar with digital media are quick to use such tools for making art. Likewise, the ease in which materials such as interference colors and flourescents can be obtained certainly influences the range of pigments and effects artists can now use. Further the contradictions embedded in color semantics, problems with warm and cool colors or fruitless attempts at categorizing feelings by colors, or the difficulties in naming colors certainly suggest possibilities for exploring relationships between color and language.
In light of such a deluge of color experience one might think academic interest in color would be at an all time high. Yet, indications suggest an appalling lack of regard for color in contemporary art education. I first became aware of such a shift when I witnessed a major school's revamping of the undergraduate foundation wherein a major color figure taught, basically by eliminating color courses. But this was not a lone incident. A number of past conferences at the College Art Association, the annual major conference of the United States and Canada, showed me the ease with which messiahs of departments facing budget crunches chose to eliminate their color courses. Color information was outright dismissed or lumped into general design overviews as though best learned through osmosis. As an analogy, I cannot imagine art schools jettisoning all drawing classes and praying, I guess, that these skills will be picked up in design courses.
A recent study was undertaken to compare secondary education color courses in Japan with those of the United States. Following two months of scrutiny, the researchers found so few discreet color courses in American colleges of art that the project was abandoned.
The continued reliance by artists upon on non-iconic art, by which a work's syntactic qualities such as color are highlighted, would seem to necessitate color education. But lacking this foundation, students allured by color are apt to find themselves in a wasteland where initial studio experiments and forays into books are no assurance of understanding and clarity. Further difficulties arise for art students as the distinctions between art, physics, psychology, psychophysics, chemistry, and philosophy blur when investigating color. Available texts can appear and sometimes are contradictory, misleading, and infrequently downright incorrect, as with a recent best seller that said Seurat would juxtapose yellow and blue dots that would mix optically to a green brighter than any found in a tube of paint -- something completely impossible.
Colors and color diagrams said to be reproducible from three colors are trickily reproduced with four process colors, or in the case of one popular book, 7 carefully chosen process colors to guarantee saturated hues throughout the entire color wheel. Further muddying up the water are camps polarized over the true primary colors: cyan, yellow, magenta for printing processes and transparent painting media; red, yellow, blue for painting and other media that operate with opaque pigments, red, green, and blue relating to our tri-chromatic retinal processing that forms the basis for inventions like color televisions, and yellow, blue, red, green, describing our post retinal coding of colors, called the opponent process which was discovered in part by paying particular attention to perceptual oddities such as afterimages and contrast effects, all of which must appear confusing to art students who lack a foundation in color theory.
In presenting this dichotomy between color experience and academic bias I offer to you a dystopia of color education in a utopia of color experience, and this condition is what I see as off-putting, off-key, and indeed, off-color. In this realm where virtually every seen experience enters us through color channels and is interpreted by us as color information, it seems particularly pertinent to ask why color has apparently lost its meaning in undergraduate and in particular graduate programs.
A questioning of the reasons for the disdain of color study begins by re-examining that manna titled Interaction of Color upon which students were fed more and less frequently up into the 1980's. With a pack of color aid in hand (a set of around 300 silkscreened papers) students would start on page one and diligently work their way through most of the book's exercises. By the end of the semester, each had, like everyone else, little studies that attempted to replicate the effects illustrated in the book. Artists would later stand in front of their own art wondering what relevance simultaneous contrast could possibly have to their messy painting, or digital art. Of course everyone saw that one color appeared to change a bit when surrounded by another color, but so what.
And worse, the method taught many artists that color was limited, apparently, to hard edge and optical configurations and everyone knew those styles were generally unaccepted.
On the other hand it seems simplistic to pin the blame on Albers because his work was ground-breaking, for its breadth as well as its focus. It is true his work did provide the foundation which sparked some artists to further study. But the translation of his ideas into classroom assignments often carried the dangerous scent of the pre-solved answer that turned off many more who couldn't make the connection to their own works. These artists often went on to set departmental policies that reflected their particular biases.
I recognize that I to a certain degree I am recalling the arguments that contrast color and design as debated by the Rubenists, who said color cannot be relegated to simple principles, such as design as argued by the Poussinists, because of the infinitely changeable quality of nature, and by Delacroix who argued for the transforming aspects of color rather than the importance of local colors as championed by Ingres. Such a polarizing of color in art has continued almost unremittently. Examples may be found in the transpositions of deconstruction and semiotics to visual art from text based art. The result was that artists were seduced into believing that all aspects of art must be accountable to text based criteria. So color, a quale so ephemeral and changeable as to be mostly impossible to cram into such an expedient, was quickly dismissed as irrelevant.
Still, I believe the root of the problem is greater than I've so far outlined. In the same way a writer has to find one's voice with words, the artist must find his or her palette with color. An educator, no matter how good, cannot choose the particular array of colors that will prove meaningful to the artist.
The obvious question prods at the necessity of formal color education at all. Grammar doesn't guarantee a Melville nor color mixing a Signac. And for artists, color, like any element of the creative process, can be learned in a variety of ways whether from experience, practice, exercises, texts, or copying.
The artist who never studies color can become a sort of facile and respected artist. Yet it is difficult to articulate the difference between an artist who uses color to create a cohesive color statement and the artist who uses color in a superficial and conventional manner. Succinctly said, the artist lacking in color knowledge lacks possibilities. Color education can demonstrate the remarkable heights some artists have attained using color and can challenge students to aspire to those peaks. Only by the closest of study will young artists begin to understand the wondrous chromatic contrasts of Cezanne, the intensification of edge conditions by Vermeer, the literal depictions of simultaneous contrast by Signac, or the vibratory, floating haze of the Seurat.
If educators can break free of the strangle-hold of the contemporary bias against color, the Alber's post-Bauhausian revival, often viewed as only a brief bright comet, might instead be seen it as a preliminary foundation upon which we can construct methods more appropriate to contemporary experience.
A pedagogical goal then is to create course assignments, combined with a method of teaching, that spark imaginations toward broad and meaningful investigations of color, presented in a way that does not diminish its multifarious and mysterious character.
Note, I am not talking about standards and rules for color usage. I am suggesting a median position incorporating basics and the fact that requirements which color education for art students must meet today have changed. I also stress that any theoretical approach in an artistic program must be grounded in practical exercises, for indeed color is a perceptual event wherein more questions are raised or answers pursued by doing and looking than by reading.
Students who come to my color classes often take for granted much of today's color, for example the bleaching effects of the rapid color presentations on music videos, or the neon colors often found in chainstore clothing. By presenting color from the point of their own world view, the jump to genuine interest in color is facilitated. Yet, although the mode of color presentation has changed due technological advances, and there are those who say color seems to be different today than from what it used to be, these advances remain adequately described by existing theory.
I often ask students to undertake projects by locating an effect of color in which they are particularly interested and to create a form that highlights or a theory that describes their concern. From xerox technicians who want to better understand the overlapping pigments to photographers who wish to predict the characteristics of dyes, to lighting designers who know additive mixture but wish to somehow find their own sense of color order, to visual artists who wish to utilize variations of contrast and assimilation, each describes an urgent need for color education.
In finality it is necessary that students come away from a color course retaining the aesthetic and scientific fundamentals of color, utilizing such knowledge when necessary, filtering out aspects pertinent to their own investigations, and knowing where to find more information should their requirements shift. In this way the artist may begin to master this tool for creating visual structures.
In his book Elementary Color of 1895, Milton Bradley celebrated the observation that:
"A few years ago it might well have been thought necessary to preface a treatise on the subject with arguments to prove that color is a legitimate object for school instruction, but today this is not a question with thoughtful educators whether considered from the practical, industrial or aesthetic standpoint."1
Bradley believed technological inventions would continually invigorate color education. He wrote this at a time when a basis for trichromatic theory was a hundred years old; a theory of the opponent process nearly fifty years old; it came only a few years before the major three-dimensional color order models of Munsell and Ostwald that were to further spark the impetus toward more exacting color quantification. Now a hundred years hence we find Bradley's predictions did not in finality describe a utopia where color understanding and color usage in art find unity.
Reference 1. M. Bradley, Elementary Color, Milton Bradley Co., Springfield MA, 1895, p.8.
Christopher Willard ©
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--> This study appeared on colormatters.com : www.colormatters.com
--> Christopher Willard can be reached at cwillard@mindspring.com
----------------------
--> I also recommend this great article by Carlos Cruz-Diez : "Reflections on Color" : www.coleccioncisneros.org/st_writ.asp?ID=13&Type=2
Toulouse Lautrec Impressionist Painting Young Girl & Eros - Adolphe c.1882
Attributed to Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) After William Bouguereau
Approx: Size 47" tall x 35.25" wide (without the frame) - 62.75" tall x 51" wide (with Frame)
History
William Bouguereau was France's most popular painter of the late 1800s. A leader of the Academic School,
Bouguereau specialized in carefully detailed mythological and genre scenes, and was particularly noted for his tender
portrayals of children. "The Abduction of Psyche" (1895) is probably his best-known work. Today many critics dismiss
his style as kitsch and do not look kindly on his harmful opposition to new creative trends; but his exquisite craftsmanship
is undeniable. Bouguereau completed over 800 paintings, many of them life-sized. Adolphe William Bouguereau (he
never used his first name) was born in La Rochelle, France. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and won the Prix de
Rome in 1850. In 1868 he built a lavish studio in Montparnasse and helped make that area the foremost artists' quarter
in Paris. Around this time he also began a liason with one of his students, American painter Elizabeth Gardner;
Bouguereau's mother opposed the relationship and the couple did not marry until her death in 1896. As comparatively
obscure as he is these days, it's difficult to imagine what a star Bouguereau was in the art world of his era. He worked
hard to fufil his many commissions and his paintings were so sought after, and fetched such high prices, that he once
boasted, "I lose five francs every time I pee". Engraved reproductions of his works sold in the millions. Along with wealth
and fame came many honors, including election to the Institute of France and being named a Grand Officer of the Legion
of Honor. Reactionary in visual tastes, Bouguereau believed art should idealize beauty and turned up his nose at
anything that even remotely deviated from this dictum. As President of the Society of French Artists from 1881, he
oversaw the selection of the thousands of paintings shown annually at the Paris Salon, the only real avenue to success
for aspiring Gallic painters and sculptors. For decades he used this position to hinder the press and public from
discovering the revolutionary changes that were taking place in French painting, including Impressionism, Realism,
Pointillism, and the singular efforts of Paul Gaugin, Henri Rousseau, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Paul Cezanne, who
submitted canvases to that venue every year only to have them rejected, finally gave up and declared, "I don't stand a
chance in Monsieur Bouguereau's Salon". Rival salons sprang up in Paris to combat Bouguereau's conservatism, but he
remained powerful and influential until his death at 79. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)
In 1882, Lautrec moved from Albi to Paris, where he studied art in the ateliers of two academic painters, Léon Bonnat
(1833–1922) and Fernand Cormon (1845–1924), who also taught Émile Bernard (1868–1941) and Vincent van Gogh
(1853–1890). Lautrec soon began painting en plein air in the manner of the Impressionists, and often posed sitters in the
Montmartre garden of his neighbor, Père Forest, a retired photographer. One of his favorite models was a prostitute
nicknamed La Casque d'Or (Golden Helmet), seen in the painting The Streetwalker (2003.20.13). Lautrec used peinture
à l'essence, or oil thinned with turpentine, on cardboard, rendering visible his loose, sketchy brushwork. The
transposition of this creature of the night to the bright light of day—her pallid complexion and artificial hair color clash with
the naturalistic setting—signals Lautrec's fascination with sordid and dissolute subjects. Later in his career, he would
devote an entire series of prints, called Elles, to life inside a brothel (1984.1203.166).
The most notable painting from the Harris collection was the early Toulouse-Lautrec painting "La blanchisseuse" (1886-
87), a young laundress with copper-colored hair and a pearly white blouse. Its optimistic presale estimate of $20 million
to $25 million turned out to be justified, as the painting sold for $22.4 million to a phone bidder. The price was a record
for a work by the artist sold at auction, $6 million more than the previous highest price.
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) was a French artist of the late 19th Century, most closely associated with the
Symbolists, but with a unique, distinctive style of his own. His depictions of Parisian night life and society -- vivid, candid,
energetic and unflattering -- are instantly recognizable, and typify that place and period in the minds of many. The
painter's own life has become a legend that has inspired many romanticized interpretations.
Henri-Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa was born on November 24, 1864, in the town of Albi, in the south of
France. He was the first child and heir of Alphonse Charlers Jean Marie (1838-1913), Count of Toulouse, and his wife
Marie Marquette Zoe Adele Tapie de Celeyran (1841-1930). Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec was an avid
sportsman and hunter, with a penchant for flamboyant outfits. Marie de Celeyran, by contrast, was very reserved and shy,
and doted on her first child. Young Henri was probably first introduced to painting through his uncles, several of whom
were amateur artists. He received his first tutelage in art from Rene Princeteau, a well-known sports-painter and a friend
of his father's.
Much of Henri's early childhood was spent in the Chateau de Celeyran, his mother's familial home, near the
Mediterranean town of Narbonne, where he spent much time drawing and painting the life and landscape of the estate. In
1868, his parents separated; Henri would live mostly with his mother. In 1872, he was enrolled in the prestigious Lycee
Fontanes in Paris, but he left the school only three short years later, in 1875, due to health reasons. Together with his
mother, he moved back to the south of France, and its gentler climate.
In 1878, Henri broke his left thigh as he was getting up out of a chair. Bed-ridden, he spent his time reading, drawing and
painting. A year later and just barely recovered from his first injury, he broke his other thigh whilst taking a walk with his
mother. The growth of his legs was stunted forever, and he never grew taller than 5 feet. There is much speculation about
the causes of the painter's medical condition. From the evidence we have today, it is probable that he suffered from
brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta), a genetic disorder that prevents bones and connective tissues from
developing properly. Osteogenesis imperfecta was not uncommon among the European aristocracy, and this would
explain Henri's physical frailty and other symptoms. Be that as it may, his illness was never identified during his lifetime,
and nothing his mother and his doctors undertook would help.
Meanwhile, Henri continued to pursue art. By 1880, he had produced as many as two and a half thousand works, in a
variety of techniques. Encouraged by his uncle Charles and by Princeteau, he eventually managed to convince his
mother to allow him to return to Paris to study art. In 1881, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec set up residence in Princeteau's
Paris studio.
In 1882, the young artist was accepted into the studio of the famous painter and art teacher Leon Bonnat. However,
Bonnat took an immediate dislike to Toulouse-Lautrec, who, already then, had something of a caustic personality. The
two did not get along well, and after Bonnat became a professor at the Paris Academy of Art, Lautrec quit his studio and
began to study, instead, under Fernand Cormon. Cormon was a talented artist in his own right, and an enthusiastic
teacher, and his workshop attracted many young painters who would later be among the shapers of the art world.
Under Cormon, Toulouse-Lautrec explored many styles and techniques. He received a firm grounding in academic
painting, but Cormon also encouraged his students to explore Impressionism and contemporary directions in art. Two of
the painter's works from this period are the Artist's Mother (1883) and the Young Routy at Celeyran (1883).
In 1883, Lautrec had his first romantic liaison with Marie Charlet, a 17-year-old model. The painter would have many
affairs over the course of his rather brief life. All of them would be with women far below his station, and none of them
were very long-lasting. Although the artist immersed himself in the life of the lower classes -- the cabarets, the dance
halls and the brothels -- he always retained an aristocratic aloofness and a sense of his own superiority. He was not
attempting to become part of that life: he was rather an unprejudiced observer; a doctor or a scientist, trying to dissect it
and give it life, in his art.
Lautrec moved into the Montmartre district in 1884. Here, he met Edgar Degas, whom he came to admire. He soon
began to frequent the district's cabarets, including the Elysee-Montmartre, the Moulin de la Galette and the Mirliton, run
by Artistide Bruant, where he displayed his works. That year, he also had his first exhibition at the Pau.
In 1886, Lautrec met Vincent Van Gogh at Cormon's studio, where the Dutch painter had come to study. They quickly
became friends, though Lautrec left the studio only a few months later, his education there concluded. This was also the
year when he met Suzanne Valadon, who modelled for him, and they began a relationship. It didn't last long; two years
later, Valadon attempted suicide and the couple broke up. See The Laundress, which is one of the artist's depiction of
his mistress.
By this point, Lautrec's art was beginning to attract greater notice. In 1887, he participated in an exhibition in Toulouse,
where he assumed a false name, in order to distance himself from his father, the Count of Toulouse. In Paris, he
exhibited together with Van Gogh. He was invited to send some of his work to the les Vingt ("The Twenty") exhibition,
taking place early in 1888, in Brussels. At the same exhibition, two years later, Lautrec had a fierce argument with the
painter Henry de Groux over the inclusion of Van Gogh's work, and challenged the Belgian to a duel. The duel never took
place, but it shows the friendship Lautrec and Van Gogh shared. Van Gogh stayed with Lautrec in Paris, not long before
his suicide in 1890. See Toulouse-Lautrec's portrait of Vincent Van Gogh.
In 1889, Lautrec participated in the Salon des Independants for the first time. He would become a frequent contributor to
the Salon's exhibitions. He spent the summer on France's Atlantic coast, yachting. This year saw the opening of the
cabaret Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre; Lautrec immediately became a regular, and would often show his work at the
establishment. In modern popular culture, the name Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is inseparably linked to the Moulin Rouge,
and it is true that some of his most iconic work was made there, including his notorious Moulin Rouge poster of 1891 (La
Goulue), Valentin "the Boneless" Training the New Girls (1890), and others.
Though Lautrec is most famous for his depictions of Parisian night-life, he was a man of constantly-evolving interests,
both artistically and otherwise. Around 1893, moved away from the cabarets and took an interest in literature and
theater. He made his first engraving in 1891, and his later works include many lithographs, such as Les Ambassadeurs:
Aristide Bruant (1892), May Milton (1895), The Jockey (1899), and others. In 1893, he took part in an exhibition devoted
to painters and engravers. That year was important as well, because he had his first solo exhibition at the gallery of
Maurice Joyant. In this, he was part of a modern trend for the celebration of individual artistic achievement. Prior to the
late 19th Century, exhibitions had always been collective, featuring numerous artists.
Lautrec spent a lot of the time between 1894 and 1897 travelling. He visited London, Madrid and Toledo in Spain,
Brussels, Haarlem and Amsterdam. In England, the painter became acquainted with Whistler and Oscar Wilde, both of
whom he saw as role models -- the former for his art, the latter for his lifestyle. In Spain, he took inspiration from the old
masters: Velasquez, Goya and El Greco. In Holland, he studied Rembrandt, Bruegel and Hals. In Brussels, in 1895 and
again in 1897, he took part in exhibitions organized by the group La Libre Esthetique (The Free Aesthetic), the
successors to les Vingt, where his work was exhibited side-by-side with that of Cezanne, Signac, Gauguin and Van
Gogh.
His lifestyle, ever erratic, was becoming increasingly so as a result of his drinking, which was rapidly spiralling out of
control. In 1894, on a whim, he moved into one of the brothels he frequented and lived there for some time. Some works
painted from his experience there include Rue de Moulins (1894), Prostitutes Around a Dinner Table (1894), Two
Friends (1894-95), In 1896, at a private exhibition in the gallery of Joyant, he got into altercation with no less a
personage than the former King of Serbia, Milan Obrenovic, whom he called an ignorant "pig farmer". By this time, he
was descending into outright alcoholism. In 1897, he had an attack of delirium tremens, while on summer vacation at
Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. His artistic output decreased sharply, as most of his days were spent in various states of
intoxication. His health deteriorated sharply. In 1899, he was confined to a mental hospital, attracting jabs from the press.
He died on September 9th, 1901, at the age of 36, at one of his beloved mother's homes in Malrome. His last two
paintings were "Admiral Viaud" and "An Examination at the Faculty of Medicine".
Biography by Yuri Mataev
Bibliography:
Court Painter to the Wicked. The Life and Work of Toulouse-Lautrec by Jean Bouret. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. NY 1968
Toulouse_Lautrec. A Life. by Julia Frey Viking. 1994
Nightlife of Paris. The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec by Patrick O'Connor. Universe, NY.1991
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec by Herhard Gruitrooy. 1996.
Toulouse-Lautrec by Philippe Huisman and M.G. Dortu. Chartwell Books, Inc.1971
Toulouse-Lautrec His Complete Lithographs and Drypoints by Jean Adhemar. Harry N.Abrams, Inc. NY
Toulouse-Lautrec: The Complete Graphic Works by Gotz Adriani. Thames & Hudson, 1988.
H. de Toulouse-Lautrec: One Hundred Ten Unpublished Drawings by Arthur William Heintzelman, Edouard Julien, M.
Roland O. Heintzelman. French & European Pubns, 1955.
Toulouse Lautrec Impressionist Painting Young Girl & Eros - Adolphe c.1882
Attributed to Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) After William Bouguereau
Approx: Size 47" tall x 35.25" wide (without the frame) - 62.75" tall x 51" wide (with Frame)
History
William Bouguereau was France's most popular painter of the late 1800s. A leader of the Academic School,
Bouguereau specialized in carefully detailed mythological and genre scenes, and was particularly noted for his tender
portrayals of children. "The Abduction of Psyche" (1895) is probably his best-known work. Today many critics dismiss
his style as kitsch and do not look kindly on his harmful opposition to new creative trends; but his exquisite craftsmanship
is undeniable. Bouguereau completed over 800 paintings, many of them life-sized. Adolphe William Bouguereau (he
never used his first name) was born in La Rochelle, France. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and won the Prix de
Rome in 1850. In 1868 he built a lavish studio in Montparnasse and helped make that area the foremost artists' quarter
in Paris. Around this time he also began a liason with one of his students, American painter Elizabeth Gardner;
Bouguereau's mother opposed the relationship and the couple did not marry until her death in 1896. As comparatively
obscure as he is these days, it's difficult to imagine what a star Bouguereau was in the art world of his era. He worked
hard to fufil his many commissions and his paintings were so sought after, and fetched such high prices, that he once
boasted, "I lose five francs every time I pee". Engraved reproductions of his works sold in the millions. Along with wealth
and fame came many honors, including election to the Institute of France and being named a Grand Officer of the Legion
of Honor. Reactionary in visual tastes, Bouguereau believed art should idealize beauty and turned up his nose at
anything that even remotely deviated from this dictum. As President of the Society of French Artists from 1881, he
oversaw the selection of the thousands of paintings shown annually at the Paris Salon, the only real avenue to success
for aspiring Gallic painters and sculptors. For decades he used this position to hinder the press and public from
discovering the revolutionary changes that were taking place in French painting, including Impressionism, Realism,
Pointillism, and the singular efforts of Paul Gaugin, Henri Rousseau, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Paul Cezanne, who
submitted canvases to that venue every year only to have them rejected, finally gave up and declared, "I don't stand a
chance in Monsieur Bouguereau's Salon". Rival salons sprang up in Paris to combat Bouguereau's conservatism, but he
remained powerful and influential until his death at 79. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)
In 1882, Lautrec moved from Albi to Paris, where he studied art in the ateliers of two academic painters, Léon Bonnat
(1833–1922) and Fernand Cormon (1845–1924), who also taught Émile Bernard (1868–1941) and Vincent van Gogh
(1853–1890). Lautrec soon began painting en plein air in the manner of the Impressionists, and often posed sitters in the
Montmartre garden of his neighbor, Père Forest, a retired photographer. One of his favorite models was a prostitute
nicknamed La Casque d'Or (Golden Helmet), seen in the painting The Streetwalker (2003.20.13). Lautrec used peinture
à l'essence, or oil thinned with turpentine, on cardboard, rendering visible his loose, sketchy brushwork. The
transposition of this creature of the night to the bright light of day—her pallid complexion and artificial hair color clash with
the naturalistic setting—signals Lautrec's fascination with sordid and dissolute subjects. Later in his career, he would
devote an entire series of prints, called Elles, to life inside a brothel (1984.1203.166).
The most notable painting from the Harris collection was the early Toulouse-Lautrec painting "La blanchisseuse" (1886-
87), a young laundress with copper-colored hair and a pearly white blouse. Its optimistic presale estimate of $20 million
to $25 million turned out to be justified, as the painting sold for $22.4 million to a phone bidder. The price was a record
for a work by the artist sold at auction, $6 million more than the previous highest price.
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) was a French artist of the late 19th Century, most closely associated with the
Symbolists, but with a unique, distinctive style of his own. His depictions of Parisian night life and society -- vivid, candid,
energetic and unflattering -- are instantly recognizable, and typify that place and period in the minds of many. The
painter's own life has become a legend that has inspired many romanticized interpretations.
Henri-Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa was born on November 24, 1864, in the town of Albi, in the south of
France. He was the first child and heir of Alphonse Charlers Jean Marie (1838-1913), Count of Toulouse, and his wife
Marie Marquette Zoe Adele Tapie de Celeyran (1841-1930). Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec was an avid
sportsman and hunter, with a penchant for flamboyant outfits. Marie de Celeyran, by contrast, was very reserved and shy,
and doted on her first child. Young Henri was probably first introduced to painting through his uncles, several of whom
were amateur artists. He received his first tutelage in art from Rene Princeteau, a well-known sports-painter and a friend
of his father's.
Much of Henri's early childhood was spent in the Chateau de Celeyran, his mother's familial home, near the
Mediterranean town of Narbonne, where he spent much time drawing and painting the life and landscape of the estate. In
1868, his parents separated; Henri would live mostly with his mother. In 1872, he was enrolled in the prestigious Lycee
Fontanes in Paris, but he left the school only three short years later, in 1875, due to health reasons. Together with his
mother, he moved back to the south of France, and its gentler climate.
In 1878, Henri broke his left thigh as he was getting up out of a chair. Bed-ridden, he spent his time reading, drawing and
painting. A year later and just barely recovered from his first injury, he broke his other thigh whilst taking a walk with his
mother. The growth of his legs was stunted forever, and he never grew taller than 5 feet. There is much speculation about
the causes of the painter's medical condition. From the evidence we have today, it is probable that he suffered from
brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta), a genetic disorder that prevents bones and connective tissues from
developing properly. Osteogenesis imperfecta was not uncommon among the European aristocracy, and this would
explain Henri's physical frailty and other symptoms. Be that as it may, his illness was never identified during his lifetime,
and nothing his mother and his doctors undertook would help.
Meanwhile, Henri continued to pursue art. By 1880, he had produced as many as two and a half thousand works, in a
variety of techniques. Encouraged by his uncle Charles and by Princeteau, he eventually managed to convince his
mother to allow him to return to Paris to study art. In 1881, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec set up residence in Princeteau's
Paris studio.
In 1882, the young artist was accepted into the studio of the famous painter and art teacher Leon Bonnat. However,
Bonnat took an immediate dislike to Toulouse-Lautrec, who, already then, had something of a caustic personality. The
two did not get along well, and after Bonnat became a professor at the Paris Academy of Art, Lautrec quit his studio and
began to study, instead, under Fernand Cormon. Cormon was a talented artist in his own right, and an enthusiastic
teacher, and his workshop attracted many young painters who would later be among the shapers of the art world.
Under Cormon, Toulouse-Lautrec explored many styles and techniques. He received a firm grounding in academic
painting, but Cormon also encouraged his students to explore Impressionism and contemporary directions in art. Two of
the painter's works from this period are the Artist's Mother (1883) and the Young Routy at Celeyran (1883).
In 1883, Lautrec had his first romantic liaison with Marie Charlet, a 17-year-old model. The painter would have many
affairs over the course of his rather brief life. All of them would be with women far below his station, and none of them
were very long-lasting. Although the artist immersed himself in the life of the lower classes -- the cabarets, the dance
halls and the brothels -- he always retained an aristocratic aloofness and a sense of his own superiority. He was not
attempting to become part of that life: he was rather an unprejudiced observer; a doctor or a scientist, trying to dissect it
and give it life, in his art.
Lautrec moved into the Montmartre district in 1884. Here, he met Edgar Degas, whom he came to admire. He soon
began to frequent the district's cabarets, including the Elysee-Montmartre, the Moulin de la Galette and the Mirliton, run
by Artistide Bruant, where he displayed his works. That year, he also had his first exhibition at the Pau.
In 1886, Lautrec met Vincent Van Gogh at Cormon's studio, where the Dutch painter had come to study. They quickly
became friends, though Lautrec left the studio only a few months later, his education there concluded. This was also the
year when he met Suzanne Valadon, who modelled for him, and they began a relationship. It didn't last long; two years
later, Valadon attempted suicide and the couple broke up. See The Laundress, which is one of the artist's depiction of
his mistress.
By this point, Lautrec's art was beginning to attract greater notice. In 1887, he participated in an exhibition in Toulouse,
where he assumed a false name, in order to distance himself from his father, the Count of Toulouse. In Paris, he
exhibited together with Van Gogh. He was invited to send some of his work to the les Vingt ("The Twenty") exhibition,
taking place early in 1888, in Brussels. At the same exhibition, two years later, Lautrec had a fierce argument with the
painter Henry de Groux over the inclusion of Van Gogh's work, and challenged the Belgian to a duel. The duel never took
place, but it shows the friendship Lautrec and Van Gogh shared. Van Gogh stayed with Lautrec in Paris, not long before
his suicide in 1890. See Toulouse-Lautrec's portrait of Vincent Van Gogh.
In 1889, Lautrec participated in the Salon des Independants for the first time. He would become a frequent contributor to
the Salon's exhibitions. He spent the summer on France's Atlantic coast, yachting. This year saw the opening of the
cabaret Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre; Lautrec immediately became a regular, and would often show his work at the
establishment. In modern popular culture, the name Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is inseparably linked to the Moulin Rouge,
and it is true that some of his most iconic work was made there, including his notorious Moulin Rouge poster of 1891 (La
Goulue), Valentin "the Boneless" Training the New Girls (1890), and others.
Though Lautrec is most famous for his depictions of Parisian night-life, he was a man of constantly-evolving interests,
both artistically and otherwise. Around 1893, moved away from the cabarets and took an interest in literature and
theater. He made his first engraving in 1891, and his later works include many lithographs, such as Les Ambassadeurs:
Aristide Bruant (1892), May Milton (1895), The Jockey (1899), and others. In 1893, he took part in an exhibition devoted
to painters and engravers. That year was important as well, because he had his first solo exhibition at the gallery of
Maurice Joyant. In this, he was part of a modern trend for the celebration of individual artistic achievement. Prior to the
late 19th Century, exhibitions had always been collective, featuring numerous artists.
Lautrec spent a lot of the time between 1894 and 1897 travelling. He visited London, Madrid and Toledo in Spain,
Brussels, Haarlem and Amsterdam. In England, the painter became acquainted with Whistler and Oscar Wilde, both of
whom he saw as role models -- the former for his art, the latter for his lifestyle. In Spain, he took inspiration from the old
masters: Velasquez, Goya and El Greco. In Holland, he studied Rembrandt, Bruegel and Hals. In Brussels, in 1895 and
again in 1897, he took part in exhibitions organized by the group La Libre Esthetique (The Free Aesthetic), the
successors to les Vingt, where his work was exhibited side-by-side with that of Cezanne, Signac, Gauguin and Van
Gogh.
His lifestyle, ever erratic, was becoming increasingly so as a result of his drinking, which was rapidly spiralling out of
control. In 1894, on a whim, he moved into one of the brothels he frequented and lived there for some time. Some works
painted from his experience there include Rue de Moulins (1894), Prostitutes Around a Dinner Table (1894), Two
Friends (1894-95), In 1896, at a private exhibition in the gallery of Joyant, he got into altercation with no less a
personage than the former King of Serbia, Milan Obrenovic, whom he called an ignorant "pig farmer". By this time, he
was descending into outright alcoholism. In 1897, he had an attack of delirium tremens, while on summer vacation at
Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. His artistic output decreased sharply, as most of his days were spent in various states of
intoxication. His health deteriorated sharply. In 1899, he was confined to a mental hospital, attracting jabs from the press.
He died on September 9th, 1901, at the age of 36, at one of his beloved mother's homes in Malrome. His last two
paintings were "Admiral Viaud" and "An Examination at the Faculty of Medicine".
Biography by Yuri Mataev
Bibliography:
Court Painter to the Wicked. The Life and Work of Toulouse-Lautrec by Jean Bouret. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. NY 1968
Toulouse_Lautrec. A Life. by Julia Frey Viking. 1994
Nightlife of Paris. The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec by Patrick O'Connor. Universe, NY.1991
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec by Herhard Gruitrooy. 1996.
Toulouse-Lautrec by Philippe Huisman and M.G. Dortu. Chartwell Books, Inc.1971
Toulouse-Lautrec His Complete Lithographs and Drypoints by Jean Adhemar. Harry N.Abrams, Inc. NY
Toulouse-Lautrec: The Complete Graphic Works by Gotz Adriani. Thames & Hudson, 1988.
H. de Toulouse-Lautrec: One Hundred Ten Unpublished Drawings by Arthur William Heintzelman, Edouard Julien, M.
Roland O. Heintzelman. French & European Pubns, 1955.
Avenue Gambetta 24/01/2025 20h09
Avenue Gambetta at night. Taken in between the métro stations Saint-Fargeau and Pelleport.
Avenue Gambetta
Avenue Gambetta is a 2,280 meters long street in the 20ème arrondissement in the quartier Saint-Fargeau. Named after Léon Gambetta (1838-1882), politician, member of the government of national defense in 1870, Chairman and member of the 20th arrondissement.
Tree-lined avenue Gambetta is formed by four different axes. It starts up-Auguste Métivier at and altidtude of 54 meters, where it rises on the hill of Ménilmontant to the northeast, along the Square Samuel-de-Champlain, towards the place Martin-Nadaud. The avenue is moving then due east and reached the Place Gambetta (87 m). There, the avenue turnes to the northeast, along the town hall of the 20ème arrondissement, Square Edouard Vaillant and Tenon Hospital, and reached Paul Signac places (99 m) and Saint-Fargeau (108 m) where it undergoes its final misalignment. After passing behind the administrative Turrets Centre, headquarters of the DGSE, it borders the Olympic pool Georges-Vallerey and the Square du Docteur-Variot and ends Porte des Lilas to 116 m altitude.
Mykola Hlushchenko "Still life with a Glass Jar and a Bottle"
Paris 1920/30
Fauvism | Oil and Gouache on Paper | 11.69 x 16.53 inch
High Resolution:
The original Ukrainian signature of the artist: M Глущенко
(Enlarged fragment: The Front View of the Painting)
A knight of mystery and paintbrush
Iryna Hakh
September 17 marks the 115th birthday of Mykola Hlushchenko, a Ukrainian painter and a soviet spy.
“Your religion, Nikolai Petrovich, your most precious and ‘sacred’ thing is material interests… I’m writing to you in Russian. I do that because deep in my heart I don’t see you as a real Ukrainian. You refer to yourself as Ukrainian not as a member of an oppressed community would, but only when and where it fits you.”
A fragment of Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s letter to Hlushchenko from the 1920s
Mykola Hlushchenko is one of the brightest figures in the history of Ukrainian painting of the 20th century, the people’s artist of the USSR and the holder of the Taras Shevchenko Award. Virtually all Ukrainian guidebooks open their entries on Hlushchenko with these phrases. A God-given artist, an unsurpassed colorist, master of the landscape whose brush created over 10,000 works of art.
The past decades, however, revealed another unexpected aspect to the life of the well-known painter. In the 1990s, documents were published pointing to the fact that he was a soviet spy under the code name “Yarema”. He worked in the West successfully, handed over valuable materials about the Third Reich’s preparations for the attack against the Soviet Union to his bosses, obtained secret designs of 250 kinds of weapons, including engines for fighter jets, briefed Moscow on the activities of the leaders of "anti-Soviet nationalistic centers", reported about sentiments amongst the political and artistic elites of France and Germany, and more.
The fans of Hlushchenko’s legacy as an artist struggle to put together this side of his life and his extremely interesting creative activity during his lifetime.
In the 1920s, at an early age, Hlushchenko lived and studied in Germany and received material assistance from Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky and Roman Smal-Stotsky, Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) Ambassador in Berlin. In 1922, Hlushchenko met Oleksandr Dovzhenko who at that time served as Secretary of the USSR Consulate in Berlin. “He [Dovzhenko – Auth.] met with Ukrainian students of the Berlin Academy of Arts and visited them every night. Then, after he managed to resign from the consulate and to receive a scholarship from the Ukrainian SSR People’s Commissariat, Dovzhenko joined the private art school by Professor Kampf.” One of these evening classes played a significant role in Hlushchenko’s future, his wife later recalled. “I studied at Prof. Kampf’s private studio. Mykola Petrovych [Hlushchenko – Transl.] often replaced him for evening classes. That’s where Hlushchenko painted the portraits of Oleksandr Petrovych [Dovzhenko] and his wife Varvara Semenivna,” she recalls. The portraits were lost. The only remaining thing was a black and white photograph of Dovzhenko by Hlushchenko.
According to historians of art, it was his conversations with Dovzhenko that inspired Hlushchenko to apply for soviet citizenship. He learned that his application was approved in 1923 and gave a self-portrait to Dovzhenko as a gift, with an inscription on the backside saying “Now I know who I am.” We don’t know what the 22-year old artist meant in his address to the Ukrainian colleague, and historic documents don’t reveal anything about it.
According to other sources, Hlushchenko did not receive soviet citizenship in 1923. He then moved to Paris in 1924, so he may have had too little time to go through the citizenship procedure. In 1925, however, the USSR trade representative in France commissioned the design of the soviet pavilion from Hlushchenko at the Lyon Fair. A year later, Hlushchenko had his personal exhibition at Société des Artistes Indépendants, a landmark event in his life as an artist. It was only after this that Hlushchenko reapplied for soviet citizenship and received a USSR passport in 1927.
It was then that, at the end of the 1920s, representatives of soviet foreign intelligence noticed him: a successful young artist who so strongly wanted to be a citizen of the Soviet Union, fully met the criteria of a person who could collaborate with the soviet intelligence. Fluent in French and German and with contacts in Germany and France, he had the necessary freedom and motivation to move around Europe, meanwhile fulfilling the tasks of his new bosses. An art studio at the Volunteers Street in Paris was a popular spot for the local intelligentsia to get together and discuss both art, and politics. Hlushchenko’s talents and contacts thus made him invaluable for the respective soviet authorities.
The first test task came soon: Hlushchenko was required to attend the trial of Samuel Schwartzbard, the murderer of Symon Petliura (Paris, October 18, 1927). Along with all the materials collected from that trial and newspaper reports of it, the headquarters in Moscow received illustrations where artist drew the portraits of the people involved. That put Hlushchenko in the list of “promising” agents of soviet special services.
In the 1920s and 1930s, he had many exhibitions around Europe; shows in famous galleries; the recognition as a promising representative of the young generation of artists, and praise from critics. As a result, his exhibition activity skyrocketed. Hlushchenko was displayed in the best locations around Moscow, Paris, Bucharest and Prague. In those years, many well-known individuals visited the artist in his studio. These included Vasyl Vyshyvany (Archduke Wilhelm von Habsburg), a colonel with the Ukrainian Riflemen; Dmytro Andriyevsky, an engineer and a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists; Ivan Bunin, a Russian Nobel Prize-winning writer. Hlushchenko was in close contact with the Ukrainian artists who worked or studied in Paris, including Perfetsky, Turyn, Perebyinis, Khmeliuk and Hordynsky.
By the early 1930s, he comes the closest to his Motherland: “After I returned from Lviv to Paris in 1930, I began to organize the exhibition of Paris artists in Lviv. Hlushchenko and Perebyinis helped me a lot with this. They suggested that I display a few pieces by French and Italian painters of the Paris School. It was in the early 1930s that the artist managed to get as close as possible to the Motherland: "After returning from Lviv to Paris in 1930, I began to organize an exhibition of" Parisians "in Lviv. This helped me a lot Hlushchenko and Perebyinis. It was they who submitted the idea of publishing several works of French and Italian artists from the "Paris School". Of course, we couldn’t even think of having the paintings by the genius artists like Picasso, Derain, Chagall or Modigliani. But the witty Hlushchenko somehow got their drawings, engravings or lithographies”, wrote Sviatoslav Hordynskyi, the author of the history of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists in Lviv, the capital of Halychyna. Together with Hordynskyi and Perebyinis, Hlushchenko was a co-author of the Paris Group’s first exhibition in Lviv.
This organization started working at a Lviv museum with the First Exhibition of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists Featuring French, Italian and Belgian Artists in 1931. The organizers of this huge art project wanted to present the works by a young generation of Ukrainian artists living and working in Paris, and to show the West European painting culture of the early 20th century alongside the artists from Halychyna.
The opening of the show started a new page in the history of Ukrainian art of the first half of the 20th century. The show at the National Museum of Lviv was hugely successful. “Sviatoslav Hordynskyi, Hlushchenko and Perebyinis deserve warm appreciation for organizing the participants from Paris for the show of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists in March and April,” Ilarion Svencicki, the museum director, said to the press. “The organizers have made is possible for four thousand visitors to see the living trends in the art of Ukrainian painters in the context of contemporary art in the West. These exhibitions will remain for many years a real accomplishment of the National Museum’s cultural work. The guests had an opportunity to see contemporary accomplishments of Ukrainian art and compare them to the eternal values of the past epochs. Therefore, the Museum administration is willing to provide space for similar retrospective, comprehensive, individual and comparable shows in the future.”
As a member of the Paris Group, Hlushchenko was actively involved in the organization of the First Exhibition, as well as further work of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists. He displayed his works in collective exhibitions of the Association that took place annually in Lviv between 1931 and 1935, and was praised by art critics as “elegant, simple, authentic and sincere.”
Members of the Association, too, appreciated Hlushchenko’s work. In 1934, it published a presentable and solid monograph of his art in Ukrainian and French. The hardback book with the portrait of the well-known Parisian artist of Ukrainian original was complete with 32 illustrations and a color lithography insert. “This monograph, first in the series of such planned publications, tries to briefly and competently introduce the wider audience of art lovers to the life and art of this interesting painter…. Halychyna has not yet had an art monograph that would cover the art of individual painters in such light and beautiful form. So we should warmly greet the appearance of art monographs on our book market,” the introduction by P. Kovzhun and S. Hordynskyi said.
The following year, Hlushchenko had his personal exhibition in Lviv. He had been negotiating it with Ilarion Svencicky since 1933. He displayed nearly a hundred of his works, including paintings and drawings. His artistic work got critical acclaim in the press, with an accent on the links between Lviv and Paris art. Colleagues praised him too. V. Lasovsky wrote with admiration: “Hlushchenko’s art is the cause of sentiment, love for color, the first impression and the negation of reason in favor of a more sophisticated color palette, in favor of the general tone of the texture that would underline the quality of the paint rather than convey the material structure of the object painted.”
This personal show was successful both artistically and financially. Many works were bought by the fans of Hlushchenko’s art right from display, and some works made it into the collection of the National Museum.
Despite this huge success, the admiration of the Lviv audience and of his fellow artists, Hlushchenko never joined the massive exhibition for the 20th anniversary of the National Museum in Lviv that involved all members of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists. His works were absent from the following annual exhibitions of the Association that took place in Lviv up until 1939.
In 1936, the Hlushchenko family moved to Moscow. The famous artist whose works were displayed alongside France’s top impressionists ended up in a room of 9 sq m in a communal flat. The following year, the family managed to move to Kyiv.
Ever since, Hlushchenko worked and lived in the Soviet Union, displaying his works in the galleries of soviet cities, including Kyiv, Moscow, Odesa and Kharkiv – once again, to the admiration of the audience and open floors from any well-known museums and halls.
In 1940, Hlushchenko is sent to Berlin where the exhibition of soviet decorative art was to take place. IT is hard to say now why the artists agreed to join yet another task from the intelligence. But he did fulfill it and received a gift at the exhibition – an album of watercolor paintings by Adolf Hitler which he handed over to Stalin after his return back to the Soviet Union. Hlushchenko continued to display his works during the war in the galleries of Moscow (1941, 1942, 1943) and Kyiv (1944).
After 1944, Hlushchenko lived in Kyiv. His studio was on the uppermost floor of the Moscow Building at Khreshchatyk, the main street of Kyiv. He was accepted as member of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine that same year.
After the war, Hlushchenko worked and displayed his art a lot in the capitals of the Soviet Union republics. As one of the Soviet Union’s top artists, he represented art intelligentsia in exhibitions in Poland (1954), Great Britain (1966), Canada (1968), Germany (1971) and Japan (1971). His trip to Belgium in 1958 was allowed. Such approvals of participation in international exhibitions in the Soviet Union were only granted to the artists who were super loyal and favored by those in power, and represented zero threat to the ideological propaganda of socialist soviet art in “hostile” capitalist states.
In 1976, Hlushchenko was awarded the title of the People’s Artist of the Soviet Union. During his lifetime, he saw the publication of several albums with his works and many articles about his accomplishments in art – although many facts of his biography were silenced while his life abroad in the interwar period was presented from a perspective that fit the overall narrative. Hlushchenko lived a beautiful wealthy life of a soviet artist who worked a lot, was in touch with the Communist Party elite and travelled abroad for exhibitions. He was admired by fellow artists. The Soviet Union was proud of him.
On October 31, 1977, Hlushchenko died and was buried at the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv.
Who was painter Mykola Hlushchenko in reality? He was probably the only person who could actually answer that question. He personally valued his early period while describing the later stage as forced celebration of soviet life. Shortly before his death, Hlushchenko selected 250 paintings created in the 1950s and asked his wife to burn them. That request was never fulfilled: the paintings were found at his studio after his death and handed over to the Ministry of Culture for preservation without the right to display them.
In 1971, Hlushchenko visited Lviv (his first show there took place in 1957) with a personal exhibition that turned out to be the last one in his lifetime in the city. Handsome, fit, joyful and loud, Hlushchenko entered the museum with a group of Lviv Oblast Executive Committee employees and people from the Ministry of Culture. He saw a museum employee by the entrance to the main hall where his exhibition was to open officially and stopped:
- Do you recognize me?, Hlushchenko asked the elderly man. The man turned his head and looked into the direction from which the familiar voice came with the eyes that were almost blind.
– Oh, that’s Mr. Hlushchenko, Mr. Flunt replied with a typical accent on the letter e in the name. Yaroslav Flunt was a long-time employee of the National Museum in Lviv, and a fighter with the Ukrainian Riflemen who lost his eyesight in the Liberation Struggle. Ilarion Svencicky employed him. This elderly man was personally acquainted with Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and an eyewitness of remarkable events in the development of Ukrainian art in the early 20th century. He surely remembered those good days when young French artists of Ukrainian origin had triumphantly presented their works at the museum back in the 1930s. He remembered that joyful and carefree Hlushchenko who delivered the works of Picasso, Derain, Chagall and Modigliani through the border from France, without proper documentation.
Everyone noticed tears in Hlushchenko’s eyes at that moment.
17.09.2016
© 2018 zbruc.eu
Translated by © Anna Korbut
Reprint and any other use of materials published on the website is allowed with a reference/hyperlink to zbruc.eu.
Igor Bugaenko. Mykola Hlushchenko: Biographical sketch
en.uartlib.org/mykola-hlushchenko-best-picture-not-create...
Mykola Hlushchenko: My best picture has not been created yet
Jan 22, 2015 | © Library of Ukrainian Art
For many connoisseurs the one-man retrospective of the noted Ukrainian artist Mykola Hlushchenko, mounted in September 1971 to mark his 70th jubilee, held quite a few surprises. This was especially so as regards Hlushchenko’s productions of the last few years. Those who admired the exhibits were impressed by their telling expressiveness, vivacity of color, and a fresh and original apprehension of the world around us. The show covered fifty years in the career of the artist, and every one of the canvases was a distinctive page in his biography.
One of his earliest creations, a self-portrait painted at the age of twenty-two, is done in Italian Renaissance-derived style. Its wide range of soft pastel browns, as well as the conventional architectural background and the well-modeled features of the face emanate an unusual tranquillity. And only the tense expression of the young man’s eyes distorts the inner classical balance of the portrait, revealing the true identity and thoughts of the person it represents.
When Mykola Hlushchenko was five years old, his father died. Together with his mother, he moved from his native town of Novomoskovsk to the Ukrainian village of Borisovka in Kursk Province. There he experienced the first excitement of a would-be artist while watching the local icon painters at work. The urge to paint has never left him since then. He attended classes in drawing at a commercial school in Yuzovka (now Donetsk) and was especially fond of Repin and Vasil-kivsky. The copying of paintings and scenery pieces for workers’ clubs were Hlushchenko’s first independent steps in his career as an artist.
Then followed the hard days of confinement in a prisoners-of-war camp in Poland, from which he made a daring escape to Germany. Jobless, hungry, deprived of decent lodgings, Hlushchenko nonetheless pursued his career, studying at the private studio of Hans Baluschek in Berlin.
The different schools and trends in art, which alternately coexisted with or negated and influenced each other in those days, left his artistic individuality unscathed. His best paintings he did then had a new quality of a distinction which was not drowned in the kaleidoscope of prevalent artistic inventions.
During his studies at the Berlin Academy Hlushchenko fell under the spell of symbolism which dominated the German art of the time. He had a special fondness of the famous Swedish artist Anders Zorn, whose work, realistic as it was, bore some definite marks of impressionism. This is evident in the refined feeling of plastic form, opulent brushwork and conceptual unrestrained in Hlushchenko’s pictures.
His quest for different forms of plastic imagery took him to the museums, galleries and exhibitions in Berlin, where he found many interesting works by his contemporaries and masters of the past. As an advocate of realism he was attracted by the severity and clarity of the canvases of the German and Flemish Renaissance (Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Jan van Eyk, and Lucas Cranach the Elder). Hlushchenko endeavored to convey the innermost motives of his soul, and for him the image of man and the eternal theme of feminine beauty seemed to be the best vehicles of expression in this respect.
Reviewing Hlushchenko’s entries in the 1924 exhibition at the Kasper Art Gallery in Berlin, the critics noted the high culture and technical perfection of his canvases. This success opened to him the doors of the exhibition of the Neue Sachlichkeit group, which featured works by German, French, Swiss and Italian artists (in Jstern, Dresden, and Erfurt).
In 1925, Hlushchenko moved to Paris. From here the lame of Courbet, Millet, Corot, the impressionists Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse, Picasso, Léger, Derain and Rouault spread throughout the world. Without these names the history of world art would be incomplete. “The vitality of Paris, the play of color and the illustrious achievements of the impressionists captured me,” he would later recall.
Heated disputes, criticism of the reactionary dogmas of academism whose advocates were already in a spiritual impasse but still dominated the official salons, attendances of the famous salons of Tuileries and those of the “Indépendants,” visits to dozens of private galleries and improvised shows — these were the main interests of the young artist in Paris. The rapidly changing tastes of the time notwithstanding, Hlushchenko’s personality was not lost in the colorful crowd of artists from Montmartre and Montparnasse. Apart from the works by formalistic experimentalists, which were devoid of deep content and figurative idiom, the Parisian exhibitions also displayed canvases whose subjects were closely related to life, and among them were Hlushchenko’s productions — fresh and distinct in their own right.
His compositions Les Joueurs de cartes, Les Joueurs d’échecs, La Procession, and Un Couple d’amoureux were exhibited in the Salon d’automne, Salon des Indépendants, and the Salon des Tuileries. They bore yet marks of severity and certain asceticism typical of the Berlin school. But his subsequent works — Femme assise and Femme à sa toilette — are imbued with a vitality sustained by a laconic and expressive draughtsmanship. During the Parisian period Hlushchenko also took an active part in public life. He popularized the economic and cultural achievements of the Soviet Union. In 1925, he designed the Soviet exhibition at the Lyon Fair. As chief artist of the USSR trade-industrial exhibitions, he took an active part in organizing the Soviet departments at expos held in Brussels, Milan, Paris and Marseille. Due to his efforts, a number of shows of Soviet artists were organized in Paris, such as the widely spoken about exhibition of Petr Konchalovsky.
Hlushchenko’s achievements in composition, drawing, and psychological treatment, and his broadened spiritual horizons were especially clearly projected in his portraits of the 1930s — those of Romain Rolland, Henri Barbusse, Paul Signac, and Victor Margueritte. The portrait of Henri Barbusse. in particular, produces an unforgettable impression by its dramatism and exceptional authenticity. The inner world of the subiect. a passionate fighter against fascism, is happily conveyed through original expedients which are skillfully made use of. The portrait is rightfully recognized as one of the best in the Soviet Ukrainian visual arts of the prewar period.
From 1925 to 1936 Hlushchenko’s one-man shows were mounted in many cities of Europe — in Paris. Berlin, Ostend, Milan, Stockholm, Rome, as well as in the USA.
As the political atmosphere changed for the worse, Hlushchenko could not stand aloof of the problems agitating the public mind of the world. During a visit to Spain in 1934 he did the painting Execution of Revolutionary, which he barely managed to slip through the customs.
At all stages of his career Hlushchenko’s creations have been distinguished for their telling civic message which corresponded to the best features of the art of socialist realism.
In 1936 Hlushchenko returned to his homeland.
At the outbreak of the Second World War he resided in Moscow. The press often carried his poignant graphic works indicting the crimes of the German fascists. His series Defense of Moscow is highly patriotic and revealing. Hlushchenko frequently visited the frontline and reproduced his impressions in Death of General Dovator, in the Wake of the Enemy. These and some other of his works, particularly a number of landscapes permeated with love of Russian nature, were displayed at the artist’s one-man exhibition held in Moscow in 1943.
Ukrainian art-lovers also took great interest in Hlushchenko’s creative work. The exhibition of his pictrures organized in the Kiev House of Writers drew the attention of many prominent figures in Ukrainian culture and arts.
After the liberation of Kiev, in 1944, Hlushchenko moved to Ukraine. Since then his art is closely related to his country of birth. Its colorful natural beauties and the poesy of creativity of Soviet man are the underlying sources of his inspiration. Thematically, Hlushchenko’s landscapes range from intimately lyrical to epic and monumental pieces, e. g. the pictorially refined Birches in March, the spacious Fields of a Collective Farm, the fresh Morning by the Sea, the solemnly restrained and dramatic Vishgorod Bridgehead, the elegiac Autumn in Kiev, and the grand Ukraine. In his sketches and studies he has skilfully captured the changeableness of nature and the ecstasy man derives from his immediate contact with it.
Hlushchenko’s temperament has made him one of the most traveled artists in Ukraine. For him the studio is only a temporary place of creation, where he transplants his impressions onto the canvas to be admired at exhibitions invariably following his many travels throughout the Soviet Union and abroad.
In the 1960s, as many critics have noted, Hlushchenko’s artistic conceptions suddenly took on a new form. His brushwork became broad and vigorous and his colors pure, and there appeared a marked decorativeness in his paintings.
At first sight, this was something of a surprise to many of his admirers. But on closer inspection of his previous works one would hardly leave unnoticed those subtle elements which led to such a change, viz. his keen sensitivity to the surrounding environment, unexceptionable feci in it of rhythm, and fondness of decorative folk art. His palette became richer and his choice of color freer. He sees the world in constant movement to which he subordinates both form and color. However, the decorativeness which results therefrom only enhances the feeling of harmony.
When we look at Hlushchenko’s beautiful still-lifes with flowers, we perceive them as something live and not as something created by the sheer fantasy of the artist. His works are a happy combination of fantasy and reality, e.g. Still-life (1971). with its dynamic red, yellow and lilac colors; Still-life in Blue (1971), a dreamily sensitive and bright canvas; and The Dance (1967), conveying the expressive movements of a Hutsul dance. He does not merely contemplate nature, but reproduces its eternal process of renovation. His pictures are results not of stratagem, but of spontaneity. Yet there is no trace of superficiality in them, for he is a man of exceptional talent, great experience and profound erudition in his craft.
Hlushchenko excels in many mediums. After visiting the places connected with Lenin’s life and revolutionary activities abroad (England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and Czechoslovakia) he made a series of drawings in colored felt-pointed pens, pastels, and monotypes which are as consummate as his picturesque oils. His water colors merit the same praise.
Advanced in years as he is, Hlushchenko’s youthful energy is more than admirable. His pictures vividly reflect the wisdom of immense experience, the maturity of chiseled craftsmanship and unfading talent which until now has retained its freshness, strength and the daring of an innovator’s searchings. Says the artist: “My best picture has not been created yet. I am still seeking that fire-bird which evades my grasp.”
Igor Bugaenko,1973
Copyright © Library Of Ukrainian Art
Subject and Model
The sitter is Berthe Roblès (1862–1942), a distant cousin of Camille Pissarro who became Signac’s wife on 7 November 1892. This portrait is the last of a series of intimate studies of his close family and friends, and it remains one of the rare finished figurative works in his Neo-Impressionist oeuvre.
Composition and Technique
Signac presents Berthe in profile under her parasol, applying countless pure pigment dots of complementary hues—greens set against oranges, reds against purples. The canvas deliberately avoids illusionistic depth, emphasizing a two-dimensional decorative surface. Arabesques in the sleeves, the parasol’s ribs, and details such as a stylized flower or tassel reinforce its hieratic, emblematic quality.
Provenance
The painting was held in the collection of Dr. Charles Cachin until 1989, when it was given to the French state under usufruct. It entered the Musée d’Orsay that same year as part of the national collection.
Significance
“Woman with a Parasol” showcases Signac’s mastery of pointillist theory and his shift from capturing fleeting light effects toward composing harmonious chromatic planes. By blending the Impressionist subject of outdoor leisure with a rigorously flat, decorative approach, Signac charts a distinctive path within Neo-Impressionism.
1905. Oli sobre tela. 129,5 x 162,6 cm. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk. 77.344. Obra exposada: Galeria 217.
On the coldest day ever, a visit to see the best art ever, Metropolitan Museum, New York, February 2016.
"Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice".
This painting reminded me of the great work that my Flickr friend, Roger does. Signac used dashes of paint to create paintings, while Roger uses dots.
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by CAP of Strasbourg. The image is a glossy real photograph, and the card has a divided back.
Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-Pins is a town, health resort and spa in the commune of Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes, in south-eastern France, on the Côte d'Azur. It is situated between Nice and Cannes, 13 kilometres (8 mi) from Nice Côte d'Azur Airport.
It is a major holiday destination popular with the international jet-set, with casino, nightclubs and beaches, which are made of fine grained sand, and are not straight, but instead are cut with small inlets.
History of Juan-les-Pins
Situated west of the town of Antibes on the western slope of the ridge, halfway to the old fishery village of Golfe-Juan (where Napoleon landed in 1815), it was an area with many stone pine trees (pins in French).
The inhabitants of Antibes used to go there for a promenade, for a picnic in the shadow of the trees, or to collect fallen tree branches and cones for their stoves.
The village was given the name Juan-les-Pins on the 12th. March 1882. The spelling Juan, used instead of the customary French spelling, Jean, derives from the local Occitan dialect. Other names discussed for the town included Héliopolis, Antibes-les-Pins and Albany-les-Pins (after the Duke of Albany, the fourth son of Queen Victoria).
The following year, 1883, it was decided to build a railway station in Juan-les-Pins on the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée line that had been there since 1863.
In 1926, the famous hotel Le Provençal was opened, and received guests like Charlie Chaplin, Lilian Harvey, Jack L. Warner and Man Ray.
Ray Charles' hand impression can be seen on the Boulevard Edouard Baudoin, Juan les Pins. He was there for the Jazz à Juan Festival.
Cultural References to Juan-les-Pins
Peter Sarstedt famously mentions Juan-les-Pins in his 1969 UK number one hit, 'Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)' - a verbal portrait of a girl who becomes a member of the Euro jet-set. The song mentions that the girl spends her summer vacations in Juan-les-Pins.
F. Scott Fitzgerald mentions Juan les Pins in 'Tender is the Night'.
Juan-les-Pins is prominent in Sartre's 'The Reprieve', the second volume of his 'Roads to Freedom' trilogy.
The area is also the home of Lanny Budd, the protagonist in eleven Upton Sinclair novels.
In Charles R. Jackson's novel 'The Lost Weekend', the main character, Don Birnam, mentions a holiday in Juan-les-Pins.
In Alan Furst's novel 'Kingdom of Shadows', protagonist Nicholas Morath, his Argentine girlfriend Cara, and assorted friends spend early June 1938 in Juan-les-Pins.
Near the end of Donna Tartt's 'The Goldfinch', the protagonist travels to many 'exotic places,' such as Juan-Les-Pins, to rectify his wrongdoings.
Camille Aubray's fictional novel 'Cooking for Picasso' takes place in Juan-les-Pins.
'Golfe Juan' is the name of a pointillist painting done by Paul Signac, a French neo-impressionist, in 1896.
Eglise romane Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Signac ; commune de Signac, département de la Haute-Garonne, région Midi-Pyrénées, France
Ce modeste édifice roman, à vaisseau unique terminé en abside en cul-de-four, est typique de la montagne commingeoise. Le portail de l’église fin du XIIème siècle ou début du XIIIème siècle permet de prendre conscience de l’influence régionale qu’a eu l’atelier de sculpteur de l’église de Saint-Béat. On est ici en présence d’une oeuvre d’art local, malhabile mais touchante : le sculpteur, avec ses moyens, a tenté de reproduire le tympan sculpté de Saint-Béat, réalisé au début du XIIème siècle. On retrouve, notamment, le cloisonnement des espaces : le Christ est isolé du symbole des quatre évangélistes par des baguettes sommaires remplaçant les colonnes boursouflées qui font la particularité du tympan de Saint-Béat.
(extrait de : www.festival-du-comminges.com/eglise-saint-jean-baptiste-...)
Coordonnées GPS : N42°54.325’ ; E0°37.641’
On the coldest day ever, a visit to see the best art ever, Metropolitan Museum, New York, February 2016.
Toulouse Lautrec Impressionist Painting Young Girl & Eros - Adolphe c.1882
Attributed to Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) After William Bouguereau
Approx: Size 47" tall x 35.25" wide (without the frame) - 62.75" tall x 51" wide (with Frame)
History
William Bouguereau was France's most popular painter of the late 1800s. A leader of the Academic School,
Bouguereau specialized in carefully detailed mythological and genre scenes, and was particularly noted for his tender
portrayals of children. "The Abduction of Psyche" (1895) is probably his best-known work. Today many critics dismiss
his style as kitsch and do not look kindly on his harmful opposition to new creative trends; but his exquisite craftsmanship
is undeniable. Bouguereau completed over 800 paintings, many of them life-sized. Adolphe William Bouguereau (he
never used his first name) was born in La Rochelle, France. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and won the Prix de
Rome in 1850. In 1868 he built a lavish studio in Montparnasse and helped make that area the foremost artists' quarter
in Paris. Around this time he also began a liason with one of his students, American painter Elizabeth Gardner;
Bouguereau's mother opposed the relationship and the couple did not marry until her death in 1896. As comparatively
obscure as he is these days, it's difficult to imagine what a star Bouguereau was in the art world of his era. He worked
hard to fufil his many commissions and his paintings were so sought after, and fetched such high prices, that he once
boasted, "I lose five francs every time I pee". Engraved reproductions of his works sold in the millions. Along with wealth
and fame came many honors, including election to the Institute of France and being named a Grand Officer of the Legion
of Honor. Reactionary in visual tastes, Bouguereau believed art should idealize beauty and turned up his nose at
anything that even remotely deviated from this dictum. As President of the Society of French Artists from 1881, he
oversaw the selection of the thousands of paintings shown annually at the Paris Salon, the only real avenue to success
for aspiring Gallic painters and sculptors. For decades he used this position to hinder the press and public from
discovering the revolutionary changes that were taking place in French painting, including Impressionism, Realism,
Pointillism, and the singular efforts of Paul Gaugin, Henri Rousseau, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Paul Cezanne, who
submitted canvases to that venue every year only to have them rejected, finally gave up and declared, "I don't stand a
chance in Monsieur Bouguereau's Salon". Rival salons sprang up in Paris to combat Bouguereau's conservatism, but he
remained powerful and influential until his death at 79. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)
In 1882, Lautrec moved from Albi to Paris, where he studied art in the ateliers of two academic painters, Léon Bonnat
(1833–1922) and Fernand Cormon (1845–1924), who also taught Émile Bernard (1868–1941) and Vincent van Gogh
(1853–1890). Lautrec soon began painting en plein air in the manner of the Impressionists, and often posed sitters in the
Montmartre garden of his neighbor, Père Forest, a retired photographer. One of his favorite models was a prostitute
nicknamed La Casque d'Or (Golden Helmet), seen in the painting The Streetwalker (2003.20.13). Lautrec used peinture
à l'essence, or oil thinned with turpentine, on cardboard, rendering visible his loose, sketchy brushwork. The
transposition of this creature of the night to the bright light of day—her pallid complexion and artificial hair color clash with
the naturalistic setting—signals Lautrec's fascination with sordid and dissolute subjects. Later in his career, he would
devote an entire series of prints, called Elles, to life inside a brothel (1984.1203.166).
The most notable painting from the Harris collection was the early Toulouse-Lautrec painting "La blanchisseuse" (1886-
87), a young laundress with copper-colored hair and a pearly white blouse. Its optimistic presale estimate of $20 million
to $25 million turned out to be justified, as the painting sold for $22.4 million to a phone bidder. The price was a record
for a work by the artist sold at auction, $6 million more than the previous highest price.
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) was a French artist of the late 19th Century, most closely associated with the
Symbolists, but with a unique, distinctive style of his own. His depictions of Parisian night life and society -- vivid, candid,
energetic and unflattering -- are instantly recognizable, and typify that place and period in the minds of many. The
painter's own life has become a legend that has inspired many romanticized interpretations.
Henri-Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa was born on November 24, 1864, in the town of Albi, in the south of
France. He was the first child and heir of Alphonse Charlers Jean Marie (1838-1913), Count of Toulouse, and his wife
Marie Marquette Zoe Adele Tapie de Celeyran (1841-1930). Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec was an avid
sportsman and hunter, with a penchant for flamboyant outfits. Marie de Celeyran, by contrast, was very reserved and shy,
and doted on her first child. Young Henri was probably first introduced to painting through his uncles, several of whom
were amateur artists. He received his first tutelage in art from Rene Princeteau, a well-known sports-painter and a friend
of his father's.
Much of Henri's early childhood was spent in the Chateau de Celeyran, his mother's familial home, near the
Mediterranean town of Narbonne, where he spent much time drawing and painting the life and landscape of the estate. In
1868, his parents separated; Henri would live mostly with his mother. In 1872, he was enrolled in the prestigious Lycee
Fontanes in Paris, but he left the school only three short years later, in 1875, due to health reasons. Together with his
mother, he moved back to the south of France, and its gentler climate.
In 1878, Henri broke his left thigh as he was getting up out of a chair. Bed-ridden, he spent his time reading, drawing and
painting. A year later and just barely recovered from his first injury, he broke his other thigh whilst taking a walk with his
mother. The growth of his legs was stunted forever, and he never grew taller than 5 feet. There is much speculation about
the causes of the painter's medical condition. From the evidence we have today, it is probable that he suffered from
brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta), a genetic disorder that prevents bones and connective tissues from
developing properly. Osteogenesis imperfecta was not uncommon among the European aristocracy, and this would
explain Henri's physical frailty and other symptoms. Be that as it may, his illness was never identified during his lifetime,
and nothing his mother and his doctors undertook would help.
Meanwhile, Henri continued to pursue art. By 1880, he had produced as many as two and a half thousand works, in a
variety of techniques. Encouraged by his uncle Charles and by Princeteau, he eventually managed to convince his
mother to allow him to return to Paris to study art. In 1881, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec set up residence in Princeteau's
Paris studio.
In 1882, the young artist was accepted into the studio of the famous painter and art teacher Leon Bonnat. However,
Bonnat took an immediate dislike to Toulouse-Lautrec, who, already then, had something of a caustic personality. The
two did not get along well, and after Bonnat became a professor at the Paris Academy of Art, Lautrec quit his studio and
began to study, instead, under Fernand Cormon. Cormon was a talented artist in his own right, and an enthusiastic
teacher, and his workshop attracted many young painters who would later be among the shapers of the art world.
Under Cormon, Toulouse-Lautrec explored many styles and techniques. He received a firm grounding in academic
painting, but Cormon also encouraged his students to explore Impressionism and contemporary directions in art. Two of
the painter's works from this period are the Artist's Mother (1883) and the Young Routy at Celeyran (1883).
In 1883, Lautrec had his first romantic liaison with Marie Charlet, a 17-year-old model. The painter would have many
affairs over the course of his rather brief life. All of them would be with women far below his station, and none of them
were very long-lasting. Although the artist immersed himself in the life of the lower classes -- the cabarets, the dance
halls and the brothels -- he always retained an aristocratic aloofness and a sense of his own superiority. He was not
attempting to become part of that life: he was rather an unprejudiced observer; a doctor or a scientist, trying to dissect it
and give it life, in his art.
Lautrec moved into the Montmartre district in 1884. Here, he met Edgar Degas, whom he came to admire. He soon
began to frequent the district's cabarets, including the Elysee-Montmartre, the Moulin de la Galette and the Mirliton, run
by Artistide Bruant, where he displayed his works. That year, he also had his first exhibition at the Pau.
In 1886, Lautrec met Vincent Van Gogh at Cormon's studio, where the Dutch painter had come to study. They quickly
became friends, though Lautrec left the studio only a few months later, his education there concluded. This was also the
year when he met Suzanne Valadon, who modelled for him, and they began a relationship. It didn't last long; two years
later, Valadon attempted suicide and the couple broke up. See The Laundress, which is one of the artist's depiction of
his mistress.
By this point, Lautrec's art was beginning to attract greater notice. In 1887, he participated in an exhibition in Toulouse,
where he assumed a false name, in order to distance himself from his father, the Count of Toulouse. In Paris, he
exhibited together with Van Gogh. He was invited to send some of his work to the les Vingt ("The Twenty") exhibition,
taking place early in 1888, in Brussels. At the same exhibition, two years later, Lautrec had a fierce argument with the
painter Henry de Groux over the inclusion of Van Gogh's work, and challenged the Belgian to a duel. The duel never took
place, but it shows the friendship Lautrec and Van Gogh shared. Van Gogh stayed with Lautrec in Paris, not long before
his suicide in 1890. See Toulouse-Lautrec's portrait of Vincent Van Gogh.
In 1889, Lautrec participated in the Salon des Independants for the first time. He would become a frequent contributor to
the Salon's exhibitions. He spent the summer on France's Atlantic coast, yachting. This year saw the opening of the
cabaret Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre; Lautrec immediately became a regular, and would often show his work at the
establishment. In modern popular culture, the name Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is inseparably linked to the Moulin Rouge,
and it is true that some of his most iconic work was made there, including his notorious Moulin Rouge poster of 1891 (La
Goulue), Valentin "the Boneless" Training the New Girls (1890), and others.
Though Lautrec is most famous for his depictions of Parisian night-life, he was a man of constantly-evolving interests,
both artistically and otherwise. Around 1893, moved away from the cabarets and took an interest in literature and
theater. He made his first engraving in 1891, and his later works include many lithographs, such as Les Ambassadeurs:
Aristide Bruant (1892), May Milton (1895), The Jockey (1899), and others. In 1893, he took part in an exhibition devoted
to painters and engravers. That year was important as well, because he had his first solo exhibition at the gallery of
Maurice Joyant. In this, he was part of a modern trend for the celebration of individual artistic achievement. Prior to the
late 19th Century, exhibitions had always been collective, featuring numerous artists.
Lautrec spent a lot of the time between 1894 and 1897 travelling. He visited London, Madrid and Toledo in Spain,
Brussels, Haarlem and Amsterdam. In England, the painter became acquainted with Whistler and Oscar Wilde, both of
whom he saw as role models -- the former for his art, the latter for his lifestyle. In Spain, he took inspiration from the old
masters: Velasquez, Goya and El Greco. In Holland, he studied Rembrandt, Bruegel and Hals. In Brussels, in 1895 and
again in 1897, he took part in exhibitions organized by the group La Libre Esthetique (The Free Aesthetic), the
successors to les Vingt, where his work was exhibited side-by-side with that of Cezanne, Signac, Gauguin and Van
Gogh.
His lifestyle, ever erratic, was becoming increasingly so as a result of his drinking, which was rapidly spiralling out of
control. In 1894, on a whim, he moved into one of the brothels he frequented and lived there for some time. Some works
painted from his experience there include Rue de Moulins (1894), Prostitutes Around a Dinner Table (1894), Two
Friends (1894-95), In 1896, at a private exhibition in the gallery of Joyant, he got into altercation with no less a
personage than the former King of Serbia, Milan Obrenovic, whom he called an ignorant "pig farmer". By this time, he
was descending into outright alcoholism. In 1897, he had an attack of delirium tremens, while on summer vacation at
Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. His artistic output decreased sharply, as most of his days were spent in various states of
intoxication. His health deteriorated sharply. In 1899, he was confined to a mental hospital, attracting jabs from the press.
He died on September 9th, 1901, at the age of 36, at one of his beloved mother's homes in Malrome. His last two
paintings were "Admiral Viaud" and "An Examination at the Faculty of Medicine".
Biography by Yuri Mataev
Bibliography:
Court Painter to the Wicked. The Life and Work of Toulouse-Lautrec by Jean Bouret. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. NY 1968
Toulouse_Lautrec. A Life. by Julia Frey Viking. 1994
Nightlife of Paris. The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec by Patrick O'Connor. Universe, NY.1991
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec by Herhard Gruitrooy. 1996.
Toulouse-Lautrec by Philippe Huisman and M.G. Dortu. Chartwell Books, Inc.1971
Toulouse-Lautrec His Complete Lithographs and Drypoints by Jean Adhemar. Harry N.Abrams, Inc. NY
Toulouse-Lautrec: The Complete Graphic Works by Gotz Adriani. Thames & Hudson, 1988.
H. de Toulouse-Lautrec: One Hundred Ten Unpublished Drawings by Arthur William Heintzelman, Edouard Julien, M.
Roland O. Heintzelman. French & European Pubns, 1955.
Gwendoline is happy to play Lego with the human kids...
(Lego exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland)
Lucie Cousturier
Self-Portrait
Oil on panel
The artist was one of the few Neo-Impressionists who attempted self-portraiture. She combined the angular neckline, wavy hair, and tilt of the head with a delft contrast of warm and cool hues to create a very engaging likeness.
She learned of Neo-Impressionism in the early 1900's while studying with Paul Signac,
Cousturier also authored biographies of some of the original Neo-Impressionists and was the owner of Seurat's "A Sunday of the Grande Jatte," which hung in her studio through most of her career.
In spring of 2007, the Albertina also received the previously based in Salzburg "Batliner Collection" as unrestricted permanent loan. The collection of Rita and Herbert Batliner includes important works by modern masters, from French impressionism to German expressionism of the "Blue Rider" and the "bridge" to works of the Fauvist or the Russian avant-garde from Chagall to Malevich.
de.wikipedia.org / wiki / Albertina_ (Vienna)
The Albertina
The architectural history of the Palais
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Image: The oldest photographic view of the newly designed Palais Archduke Albrecht, 1869
"It is my will that the expansion of the inner city of Vienna with regard to a suitable connection of the same with the suburbs as soon as possible is tackled and at this on Regulirung (regulation) and beautifying of my Residence and Imperial Capital is taken into account. To this end I grant the withdrawal of the ramparts and fortifications of the inner city and the trenches around the same".
This decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I, published on 25 December 1857 in the Wiener Zeitung, formed the basis for the largest the surface concerning and architecturally most significant transformation of the Viennese cityscape. Involving several renowned domestic and foreign architects a "master plan" took form, which included the construction of a boulevard instead of the ramparts between the inner city and its radially upstream suburbs. In the 50-years during implementation phase, an impressive architectural ensemble developed, consisting of imperial and private representational buildings, public administration and cultural buildings, churches and barracks, marking the era under the term "ring-street style". Already in the first year tithe decided a senior member of the Austrian imperial family to decorate the facades of his palace according to the new design principles, and thus certified the aristocratic claim that this also "historicism" said style on the part of the imperial house was attributed.
Image: The Old Albertina after 1920
It was the palace of Archduke Albrecht (1817-1895), the Senior of the Habsburg Family Council, who as Field Marshal held the overall command over the Austro-Hungarian army. The building was incorporated into the imperial residence of the Hofburg complex, forming the south-west corner and extending eleven meters above street level on the so-called Augustinerbastei.
The close proximity of the palace to the imperial residence corresponded not only with Emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Albert with a close familial relationship between the owner of the palace and the monarch. Even the former inhabitants were always in close relationship to the imperial family, whether by birth or marriage. An exception here again proves the rule: Don Emanuel Teles da Silva Conde Tarouca (1696-1771), for which Maria Theresa in 1744 the palace had built, was just a close friend and advisor of the monarch. Silva Tarouca underpins the rule with a second exception, because he belonged to the administrative services as Generalhofbaudirektor (general court architect) and President of the Austrian-Dutch administration, while all other him subsequent owners were highest ranking military.
In the annals of Austrian history, especially those of military history, they either went into as commander of the Imperial Army, or the Austrian, later kk Army. In chronological order, this applies to Duke Carl Alexander of Lorraine, the brother-of-law of Maria Theresa, as Imperial Marshal, her son-in-law Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, also field marshal, whos adopted son, Archduke Charles of Austria, the last imperial field marshal and only Generalissimo of Austria, his son Archduke Albrecht of Austria as Feldmarschalil and army Supreme commander, and most recently his nephew Archduke Friedrich of Austria, who held as field marshal from 1914 to 1916 the command of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Despite their military profession, all five generals conceived themselves as patrons of the arts and promoted large sums of money to build large collections, the construction of magnificent buildings and cultural life. Charles Alexander of Lorraine promoted as governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1741 to 1780 the Academy of Fine Arts, the Théâtre de Ja Monnaie and the companies Bourgeois Concert and Concert Noble, he founded the Academie royale et imperial des Sciences et des Lettres, opened the Bibliotheque Royal for the population and supported artistic talents with high scholarships. World fame got his porcelain collection, which however had to be sold by Emperor Joseph II to pay off his debts. Duke Albert began in 1776 according to the concept of conte Durazzo to set up an encyclopedic collection of prints, which forms the core of the world-famous "Albertina" today.
Image : Duke Albert and Archduchess Marie Christine show in family cercle the from Italy brought along art, 1776. Frederick Henry Füger.
1816 declared to Fideikommiss and thus in future indivisible, inalienable and inseparable, the collection 1822 passed into the possession of Archduke Carl, who, like his descendants, it broadened. Under him, the collection was introduced together with the sumptuously equipped palace on the Augustinerbastei in the so-called "Carl Ludwig'schen fideicommissum in 1826, by which the building and the in it kept collection fused into an indissoluble unity. At this time had from the Palais Tarouca by structural expansion or acquisition a veritable Residenz palace evolved. Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen was first in 1800 the third floor of the adjacent Augustinian convent wing adapted to house his collection and he had after 1802 by his Belgian architect Louis de Montoyer at the suburban side built a magnificent extension, called the wing of staterooms, it was equipped in the style of Louis XVI. Only two decades later, Archduke Carl the entire palace newly set up. According to scetches of the architect Joseph Kornhäusel the 1822-1825 retreaded premises presented themselves in the Empire style. The interior of the palace testified from now in an impressive way the high rank and the prominent position of its owner. Under Archduke Albrecht the outer appearance also should meet the requirements. He had the facade of the palace in the style of historicism orchestrated and added to the Palais front against the suburbs an offshore covered access. Inside, he limited himself, apart from the redesign of the Rococo room in the manner of the second Blondel style, to the retention of the paternal stock. Archduke Friedrich's plans for an expansion of the palace were omitted, however, because of the outbreak of the First World War so that his contribution to the state rooms, especially, consists in the layout of the Spanish apartment, which he in 1895 for his sister, the Queen of Spain Maria Christina, had set up as a permanent residence.
Picture: The "audience room" after the restoration: Picture: The "balcony room" around 1990
The era of stately representation with handing down their cultural values found its most obvious visualization inside the palace through the design and features of the staterooms. On one hand, by the use of the finest materials and the purchase of masterfully manufactured pieces of equipment, such as on the other hand by the permanent reuse of older equipment parts. This period lasted until 1919, when Archduke Friedrich was expropriated by the newly founded Republic of Austria. With the republicanization of the collection and the building first of all finished the tradition that the owner's name was synonymous with the building name:
After Palais Tarouca or tarokkisches house it was called Lorraine House, afterwards Duke Albert Palais and Palais Archduke Carl. Due to the new construction of an adjacently located administration building it received in 1865 the prefix "Upper" and was referred to as Upper Palais Archduke Albrecht and Upper Palais Archduke Frederick. For the state a special reference to the Habsburg past was certainly politically no longer opportune, which is why was decided to name the building according to the in it kept collection "Albertina".
Picture: The "Wedgwood Cabinet" after the restoration: Picture: the "Wedgwood Cabinet" in the Palais Archduke Friedrich, 1905
This name derives from the term "La Collection Albertina" which had been used by the gallery Inspector Maurice von Thausing in 1870 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts for the former graphics collection of Duke Albert. For this reason, it was the first time since the foundation of the palace that the name of the collection had become synonymous with the room shell. Room shell, hence, because the Republic of Austria Archduke Friedrich had allowed to take along all the movable goods from the palace in his Hungarian exile: crystal chandeliers, curtains and carpets as well as sculptures, vases and clocks. Particularly stressed should be the exquisite furniture, which stems of three facilities phases: the Louis XVI furnitures of Duke Albert, which had been manufactured on the basis of fraternal relations between his wife Archduchess Marie Christine and the French Queen Marie Antoinette after 1780 in the French Hofmanufakturen, also the on behalf of Archduke Charles 1822-1825 in the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory by Joseph Danhauser produced Empire furnitures and thirdly additions of the same style of Archduke Friedrich, which this about 1900 at Portois & Ffix as well as at Friedrich Otto Schmidt had commissioned.
The "swept clean" building got due to the strained financial situation after the First World War initially only a makeshift facility. However, since until 1999 no revision of the emergency equipment took place, but differently designed, primarily the utilitarianism committed office furnitures complementarily had been added, the equipment of the former state rooms presented itself at the end of the 20th century as an inhomogeneous administrative mingle-mangle of insignificant parts, where, however, dwelt a certain quaint charm. From the magnificent state rooms had evolved depots, storage rooms, a library, a study hall and several officed.
Image: The Albertina Graphic Arts Collection and the Philipphof after the American bombing of 12 März 1945.
Image: The palace after the demolition of the entrance facade, 1948-52
Worse it hit the outer appearance of the palace, because in times of continued anti-Habsburg sentiment after the Second World War and inspired by an intolerant destruction will, it came by pickaxe to a ministerial erasure of history. In contrast to the graphic collection possessed the richly decorated facades with the conspicuous insignia of the former owner an object-immanent reference to the Habsburg past and thus exhibited the monarchial traditions and values of the era of Francis Joseph significantly. As part of the remedial measures after a bomb damage, in 1948 the aristocratic, by Archduke Albert initiated, historicist facade structuring along with all decorations was cut off, many facade figures demolished and the Hapsburg crest emblems plunged to the ground. Since in addition the old ramp also had been cancelled and the main entrance of the bastion level had been moved down to the second basement storey at street level, ended the presence of the old Archduke's palace after more than 200 years. At the reopening of the "Albertina Graphic Collection" in 1952, the former Hapsburg Palais of splendour presented itself as one of his identity robbed, formally trivial, soulless room shell, whose successful republicanization an oversized and also unproportional eagle above the new main entrance to the Augustinian road symbolized. The emocratic throw of monuments had wiped out the Hapsburg palace from the urban appeareance, whereby in the perception only existed a nondescript, nameless and ahistorical building that henceforth served the lodging and presentation of world-famous graphic collection of the Albertina. The condition was not changed by the decision to the refurbishment because there were only planned collection specific extensions, but no restoration of the palace.
Image: The palace after the Second World War with simplified facades, the rudiment of the Danubiusbrunnens (well) and the new staircase up to the Augustinerbastei
This paradigm shift corresponded to a blatant reversal of the historical circumstances, as the travel guides and travel books for kk Residence and imperial capital of Vienna dedicated itself primarily with the magnificent, aristocratic palace on the Augustinerbastei with the sumptuously fitted out reception rooms and mentioned the collection kept there - if at all - only in passing. Only with the repositioning of the Albertina in 2000 under the direction of Klaus Albrecht Schröder, the palace was within the meaning and in fulfillment of the Fideikommiss of Archduke Charles in 1826 again met with the high regard, from which could result a further inseparable bond between the magnificent mansions and the world-famous collection. In view of the knowing about politically motivated errors and omissions of the past, the facades should get back their noble, historicist designing, the staterooms regain their glamorous, prestigious appearance and culturally unique equippment be repurchased. From this presumption, eventually grew the full commitment to revise the history of redemption and the return of the stately palace in the public consciousness.
Image: The restored suburb facade of the Palais Albertina suburb
The smoothed palace facades were returned to their original condition and present themselves today - with the exception of the not anymore reconstructed Attica figures - again with the historicist decoration and layout elements that Archduke Albrecht had given after the razing of the Augustinerbastei in 1865 in order. The neoclassical interiors, today called after the former inhabitants "Habsburg Staterooms", receiving a meticulous and detailed restoration taking place at the premises of originality and authenticity, got back their venerable and sumptuous appearance. From the world wide scattered historical pieces of equipment have been bought back 70 properties or could be returned through permanent loan to its original location, by which to the visitors is made experiencable again that atmosphere in 1919 the state rooms of the last Habsburg owner Archduke Frederick had owned. The for the first time in 80 years public accessible "Habsburg State Rooms" at the Palais Albertina enable now again as eloquent testimony to our Habsburg past and as a unique cultural heritage fundamental and essential insights into the Austrian cultural history. With the relocation of the main entrance to the level of the Augustinerbastei the recollection to this so valuable Austrian Cultural Heritage formally and functionally came to completion. The vision of the restoration and recovery of the grand palace was a pillar on which the new Albertina should arise again, the other embody the four large newly built exhibition halls, which allow for the first time in the history of the Albertina, to exhibit the collection throughout its encyclopedic breadh under optimal conservation conditions.
Image: The new entrance area of the Albertina
64 meter long shed roof. Hans Hollein.
The palace presents itself now in its appearance in the historicist style of the Ringstrassenära, almost as if nothing had happened in the meantime. But will the wheel of time should not, cannot and must not be turned back, so that the double standards of the "Albertina Palace" said museum - on the one hand Habsburg grandeur palaces and other modern museum for the arts of graphics - should be symbolized by a modern character: The in 2003 by Hans Hollein designed far into the Albertina square cantilevering, elegant floating flying roof. 64 meters long, it symbolizes in the form of a dynamic wedge the accelerated urban spatial connectivity and public access to the palace. It advertises the major changes in the interior as well as the huge underground extensions of the repositioned "Albertina".
Christian Benedictine
Art historian with research interests History of Architecture, building industry of the Hapsburgs, Hofburg and Zeremonialwissenschaft (ceremonial sciences). Since 1990 he works in the architecture collection of the Albertina. Since 2000 he supervises as director of the newly founded department "Staterooms" the restoration and furnishing of the state rooms and the restoration of the facades and explores the history of the palace and its inhabitants.
Mykola Hlushchenko "Still life with a Glass Jar and a Bottle"
Paris 1920/30
Fauvism | Oil and Gouache on Paper | 11.69 x 16.53 inch
High Resolution:
The original Ukrainian signature of the artist: M Глущенко
(Enlarged fragment: The Front View of the Painting)
“A Parisian handsome man, bohemian, and painter”
What was the path of Ukrainian artist Mykola Hlushchenko to art like?
day.kyiv.ua/en/article/time-out/parisian-handsome-man-boh...
17 December, 2014 - 17:09 ▪ Yaroslav Kravchenko
In September 1901 future painter Mykola Hlushchenko was born in a town with long-time Cossack traditions, Novomoskovsk, Katerynoslav region (Donetsk oblast). Having studied in a drawing class of Commercial School in Yuzivka (currently Donetsk), in 1918 during the complicated revolutionary events in Ukraine he joined the Ukrainian army and, before he had time to fight, he found himself in a Polish POW camp, from which in 1919 “without any documents and means of living” 18-year-old Mykola Hlushchenko got to Germany.
Soon he became a student of Hans Baluschek’s private art school in Berlin, where he got familiarized with the creative work of German expressionist artists, Kaethe Kollwitz and Adolph Menzel. Another step was Prof. Arthur Kampf’s private school where Hlushchenko got acquainted with an employee of General Consulate of the UkrSSR in Berlin, future film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko.
In 1921 the artist successfully passed the entrance exams to the Berlin Academy of Fine Art and together with his fellow countryman from Kherson region Ivan Babii started his studies at the studio of graphic arts professor Erich Wolfsfeld. His liking for Anders Zorn has had an effect on Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s portrait (1922), and the influence of masters of Italian and the Netherlands Renaissance was reflected in Woman’s Portrait and Self-Portrait of 1923.
German critics in their reviews of Hlushchenko’s portraits, which were on display at the exhibit in Berlin Kasper Gallery in May 1924 noted that “the first impression is like you find yourself in a department of old Italian painting of any museum in the time of Quattrocento,” and “his portraits both in terms of execution and artistic means brightly show that this is an outstanding talent with a great intellectual-aesthetic complex.”
The success of the artist enabled him together with Babii and European avant-garde artists Otto Dix, George Grosz, Gino Severini to take part in the nationwide German exhibit “Neue Sachlichkeit” in Manheim Museum in 1925. According to art historian V. Susak, “The fact that the works of yesterday’s graduates, not Germans, were included in this exhibit proves the recognition of their talent.”
“After miserable Berlin, which depresses with its cemetery silence, Paris is dazzling,” these words by Vladimir Mayakovsky describe the impressions of young Hlushchenko in 1925 from Mecca of European avant-garde, from impressionism to Dadaism – there were tens of various schools and stylistic streams!
It is not easy to surprise Paris. Yet Mykola Hlushchenko’s personality didn’t get lost in the spontaneous artistic crowd – his works are on display in the halls of “Autumn Salon,” “Salon of Independent,” Tuileries gallery.
In 1928 an album of Hlushchenko’s lithographs 12 Nudes with pictures of twelve nude models was published in Paris. A French critic, comparing the female images of the young Ukrainian masters with the works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, writes, “Lautrec’s women always have a taste of boulevard and cabaret. Hlushchenko’s women are simply nice friends who invite for pleasure.”
At the same time, “Parisian handsome man, bohemian, and painter” Hlushchenko (this is how he was characterized by art critic Lasovsky) was working as the chief artist at trade-industrial exhibits of the USSR abroad, decorated Soviet departments at exhibits in Lyon, Brussels, Milan, Paris, and Marcel.
At the beginning of the 1930s the artist creates a gallery of portraits of French political and literary-artistic workers of “progressive inclination,” “USSR friends,” Henri Barbusse, Romain Rolland, Paul Signac, Victor Margueritte, et al, who are distinguished due to the subtle psychological features of their images.
Hlushchenko’s solo exhibits in Rome, Stockholm, Prague, Bucharest, and Lviv were a notable phenomenon of the European artistic life. In 1933-34 the monographs about the artist’s creative work were published in Paris and in Lviv.
Under the influence of the “Communist ideas” Hlushchenko in 1936 moved for permanent residence to Moscow. However, not everything was clear for the artist in the art of the dominating socialist realism. And annual creative business trips to Ukraine became a kind of escape; there he created poetic landscapes The Dnipro near Kaniv, Kyiv. Bank of the Dnipro, View on the Dnipro from the Volodymyr Hill.
In 1944 after the liberation of Ukraine the artist moves to Kyiv. Preferring landscape, in particular, the technique of watercolors and monotype, he creates a series of lyrical images from his homeland, March in the Dnipro (1947), Kyiv Autumn (1950), Sands get dressed with the forest (1950), Thaw (1956), Spring on the pass. The Carpathians (1957).
In mid-1960s a well-thought radical change happened in the artistic concepts of the painter: a broad energetic stroke, local flashes of pure colors, burst of energy in sound unexpected compositions, increased decorativeness of painting. That is the distinguishing feature of the landscapes, Trypillia (1967), May Blossom (1971), the landscapes Flowers in jars (1971), Flowers (1971), Blue Still Life (1971), female acts Nude (1971), Model with an album (1971), In front of the mirror (1971). For considerable achievement in Ukrainian painting Mykola Hlushchenko was honored with the title of the winner of Taras Shevchenko State Award in 1972.
At that time he noted, “My best work hasn’t been created. I’m looking for the firebird which is hard to grasp.” The artist sincerely said these words at the opening of his solo retrospective exhibit. But he died on October 31, 1977. He was buried at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv.
By Yaroslav KRAVCHENKO, Ph.D. in Art History; photo replicas courtesy of the author
Rubric:
Time Out
Issue:
№81, (2014)
Copyright © Den | The Day (Kiev-based newspaper).
All rights reserved.
Frankreich / Provence / Côte d’Azur - Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez (/ˌsæn troʊˈpeɪ, - trəˈ-/ SAN troh-PAY, - trə-, French: [sɛ̃ tʁɔpe]; Provençal: Sant Tropetz [san(t) tʀuˈpes]) is a commune in the Var department and the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Southern France. It is 68 kilometres (42 miles) west of Nice and 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Marseille, on the French Riviera, of which it is one of the best-known towns. In 2018, Saint-Tropez had a population of 4,103. The adjacent narrow body of water is the Gulf of Saint-Tropez (French: Golfe de Saint-Tropez), stretching to Sainte-Maxime to the north under the Massif des Maures.
Saint-Tropez was a military stronghold and fishing village until the beginning of the 20th century. It was the first town on its coast to be liberated during World War II as part of Operation Dragoon. After the war, it became an internationally known seaside resort, renowned principally because of the influx of artists of the French New Wave in cinema and the Yé-yé movement in music. It later became a resort for the European and American jet set and tourists.
History
In 599 BC, the Phocaeans from Ionia founded Massilia (present-day Marseille) and established other coastal mooring sites in the area. Through the writings of Roman historian and military commander Pliny the Elder, it was found that Saint-Tropez was known in ancient times as Athenopolis and that it belonged to the Massilians. In 31 BC, the Romans invaded the region. Their citizens built many opulent villas in the area, including one known as the "Villa des Platanes" (Villa of the Plane Trees). The closest settlement to Saint-Tropez in antiquity is attested as Heraclea-Caccabaria, today Cavalaire-sur-Mer, situated on the southern end of the peninsula, while the gulf of Saint-Tropez was called sinus Sambracitanus, which likely survives in the settlement name of Les Issambres.
The town owes its current name to the early Christian martyr Saint Torpes. Legend tells of his decapitation at Pisa during Nero's reign, with his body placed in a rotten boat along with a rooster and a dog. The body purportedly landed at the present-day location of the town of Saint-Tropez.
Toward the end of the ninth century, long after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, pirates and privateers began a hundred years of attacks and sackings. In the tenth century, the village of La Garde-Freinet was founded 15 km (9 mi) to the north of Saint-Tropez. From 890 to 972, Saint-Tropez and its surroundings became an Arab Muslim colony dominated by the nearby Saracenic settlement of Fraxinet; in 940, Saint-Tropez was controlled by Nasr ibn Ahmad. From 961 to 963, Adalbert, son of Berengar, the pretender to the throne of Lombardy who was pursued by Otto I, hid at Saint-Tropez. In 972, the Muslims of Saint-Tropez held Maïeul, the abbot of Cluny, for ransom.
In 976, William I, Count of Provence, Lord of Grimaud, began attacking the Muslims, and in 980 he built a tower where the Suffren tower now stands. In 1079 and 1218, Papal bulls mentioned the existence of a manor at Saint-Tropez.
From 1436, Count René I (the "good King René") tried to repopulate Provence. He created the Barony of Grimaud and appealed to the Genoan Raphael de Garezzio, a wealthy gentleman who had sent a fleet of caravels carrying 60 Genoese families to the area. In return, Count René promised to exempt the citizens from taxation. On 14 February 1470, Jean de Cossa, Baron of Grimaud and Grand Seneschal of Provence, agreed that the Genoan could build city walls and two large towers, which still stand: one tower is at the end of the Grand Môle and the other is at the entrance to the Ponche.
The city became a small republic with its own fleet and army and was administered by two consuls and 12 elected councillors. In 1558, the city's captain Honorat Coste was empowered to protect the city. The captain led a militia and mercenaries who successfully resisted attacks by the Turks and Spanish, succored Fréjus and Antibes and helped the Archbishop of Bordeaux regain control of the Lérins Islands.
In 1577, the daughter of the Marquis Lord of Castellane, Genevieve de Castilla, married Jean-Baptiste de Suffren, Marquis de Saint-Cannet, Baron de La Môle, and advisor to the parliament of Provence. The lordship of Saint-Tropez became the prerogative of the De Suffren family. One of the most notable members of this family was the later vice-admiral Pierre André de Suffren de Saint-Tropez (1729–1788), veteran of the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War.
In September 1615, Saint-Tropez was visited by a delegation led by the Japanese samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga that was on its way to Rome but was forced by weather to stop in the town. This may have been the first contact between the French and the Japanese.
The local noblemen were responsible for raising an army that repulsed a fleet of Spanish galleons on 15 June 1637; Les Bravades des Espagnols, a local religious and military celebration, commemorates this victory of the Tropezian militia.[13] Count René's promise in 1436 to not tax the citizens of Saint-Tropez was honored until 1672, when Louis XIV abrogated it as he imposed French control.
The Gulf of Saint-Tropez was known as the Gulf of Grimaud until the end of the 19th century.
During the 1920s, Saint-Tropez attracted famous figures from the fashion world such as Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli. During World War II, the landing on 15 August 1944 began the Allied invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon. In the 1950s, Saint-Tropez became internationally renowned as the setting for such films as And God Created Woman, which starred French actress Brigitte Bardot.
In May 1965, an Aérospatiale Super Frelon pre-production aircraft crashed in the gulf, killing its pilot.
On 4 March 1970, the French submarine Eurydice, with its home port as Saint-Tropez, disappeared in the Mediterranean with 57 crew aboard after a mysterious explosion.
The motto of Saint-Tropez is Ad usque fidelis, Latin for "faithful to the end". After the Dark Age of plundering the French Riviera, Raphaël de Garesio landed in Saint-Tropez on 14 February 1470, with 22 men, simple peasants or sailors who had left the overcrowded Italian Riviera. They rebuilt and repopulated the area, and in exchange were granted by a representative of the "good king", Jean de Cossa, Baron of Grimaud and Seneschal of Provence, various privileges, including some previously reserved exclusively for lords, such as exemptions from taxes status and the right to bear arms. About ten years later, a great wall with towers stood watch to protect the new houses from sea and land attack; some 60 families formed the new community. On 19 July 1479, the new Home Act was signed, "the rebirth charter of Saint-Tropez".
Climate
Saint-Tropez has a hot-summer mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot summers, although daytime temperatures are somewhat moderated by its coastal position.
Economy
The main economic resource of Saint-Tropez is tourism. The city is well known for the Hôtel Byblos and for Les Caves du Roy, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World; its 1967 inauguration featuring Brigitte Bardot and Gunter Sachs was an international event.
Beaches
Tropezian beaches are located along the coast in the Baie de Pampelonne, which lies south of Saint-Tropez and east of Ramatuelle. Pampelonne offers a collection of beaches along its five-kilometre shore. Each beach is around 30 metres wide with its own beach hut and private or public tanning area.
Many of the beaches offer windsurfing, sailing and canoeing equipment for rent, while others offer motorized water sports, such as power boats, jet bikes, water skiing and scuba diving. Some of the beaches are naturist beaches. There are also many exclusive beach clubs that are popular among wealthy people from around the world.
Toplessness and nudity
Saint-Tropez's Tahiti Beach, which had been popularised in the film And God Created Woman featuring Brigitte Bardot, emerged as a clothing-optional destination, but the mayor of Saint-Tropez ordered police to ban toplessness and to watch over the beach via helicopter. The "clothing fights" between the gendarmerie and nudists become the main topic of a famous French comedy film series, Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez (The Troops of St. Tropez) featuring Louis de Funès. In the end, the nudist side prevailed. Topless sunbathing is now the norm for both men and women from Pampelonne beaches to yachts in the centre of Saint-Tropez port. The Tahiti beach is now clothing-optional, but nudists often head to private nudist beaches, such as that in Cap d'Agde.
Port
The port was widely used during the 18th century; in 1789 it was visited by 80 ships. Saint-Tropez's shipyards built tartanes and three-masted ships that could carry 1,000 to 12,200 barrels. The town was the site of various associated trades, including fishing, cork, wine and wood. The town had a school of hydrography. In 1860, the flagship of the merchant navy, named The Queen of the Angels (La Reine des Anges, a three-masted ship of 740 barrels capacity), was built at Saint-Tropez.
Its role as a commercial port declined, and it is now primarily a tourist spot and a base for many well-known sail regattas. There is fast boat transportation with Les Bateaux Verts to Sainte-Maxime on the other side of the bay and to Port Grimaud, Marines de Cogolin, Les Issambres and St-Aygulf.
Events
Les Bravades de Saint-Tropez
Les Bravades de Saint-Tropez is an annual celebration held in the middle of May when people of the town celebrate their patron saint, Torpes of Pisa, and their military achievements. One of the oldest traditions of Provence, it has been held for more than 450 years since the citizens of Saint-Tropez were first given special permission to form a militia to protect the town from the Barbary pirates. During the three-day celebration, the various militias in costumes of the time fire their muskets into the air at traditional stops, march to the sound of bands and parade St. Torpes's bust. The townspeople also attend a mass wearing traditional Provençal costume.
Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez
Each year, at the end of September, a regatta is held in the bay of Saint-Tropez (Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez). Many yachts are entered, some as long as 50 metres. Many tourists come to the location for this event, or as a stop on their trip to Cannes, Marseille or Nice.
Traditional dishes
The Tarte tropézienne is a traditional cake invented by a Polish confectioner who had set up shop in Saint-Tropez in the mid-1950s, and made famous by actress Brigitte Bardot.
Culture, education and sport
The town has health facilities, a cinema, a library, an outdoor center and a recreation center for youth.
Schools include: École maternelle (kindergarten – preschool) – l'Escouleto, écoles primaires (primary schools – primary education): Louis Blanc and Les Lauriers, collège d'enseignement secondaire (secondary school, high school – secondary education) – Moulin Blanc.
There are more than 1,000 students distributed among kindergartens, primary schools and one high school. In 2011, there were 275 students in high school and 51 people employed there, of whom 23 were teachers.
Art
Saint-Tropez plays a major role in the history of modern art. Paul Signac discovered this light-filled place that inspired painters such as Matisse, Pierre Bonnard and Albert Marquet to come to Saint-Tropez. The painting styles of pointillism and fauvism emerged in Saint-Tropez. Saint-Tropez was also attractive for the next generation of painters: Bernard Buffet, David Hockney, Massimo Campigli and Donald Sultan lived and worked there. Today, Stefan Szczesny continues this tradition.
The contemporary artist Philippe Shangti imagined the design of Le Quai and L'Opera, restaurants located on the port of Saint-Tropez where he also exhibits his art collections. Centered on a specific theme, he always denounces different problems affecting society with provocative artworks.
Famous persons connected with Saint-Tropez
The most famous persons connected with Saint-Tropez include the semi-legendary martyr who gave his name to the town, Saint Torpes of Pisa; Hasekura Tsunenaga, probably the first Japanese in Europe, who landed in Saint-Tropez in 1615; a hero of the American Revolutionary War, Admiral Pierre André de Suffren de Saint-Tropez; the icon of modern Saint-Tropez, Brigitte Bardot, who started the clothes-optional revolution and still lives in the Saint-Tropez area; Louis de Funès, who played the character of the gendarme (police officer) in the French comedy film series Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez and also helped establish the international image of Saint-Tropez as both a quiet town and a modern jet-set holiday target.
In popular culture
The English rock band Pink Floyd wrote a song "San Tropez" after the town. Saint-Tropez was also mentioned in David Gates's 1978 hit "Took the Last Train", Kraftwerk's "Tour de France", Aerosmith's "Permanent Vacation", Taylor Swift's "The Man", and Beyoncé's "Energy". Rappers including Diddy, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, J. Cole, and Post Malone refer to the city in some of their songs as a favorite vacation destination, usually reached by yacht. DJ Antoine wrote a song "Welcome to St. Tropez". The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles is set in a drag night club in St. Tropez. Furthermore, Bulgarian singer azis wrote a song named "Сен Тропе"(Sen Trope). Also, Romanian singer Florin Salam wrote the song (Saint Tropez). Saint Tropez was also mentioned in Army of Lovers' song "My Army of Lovers." Their song "La Plage De Saint Tropez" was also dedicated to this town.
List of media connected with Saint-Tropez
Non-exhaustive filmography
Saint-Tropez, devoir de vacances (short film, 1952)
Et Dieu... créa la femme (1956)
Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
Une fille pour l'été (1960)
Saint-Tropez Blues (1960)
Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez (1964) and its sequels Le Gendarme à New York (1965), Le Gendarme se marie (1968), Le Gendarme en balade (1970), Le Gendarme et les Extra-terrestres (1979) and finally Le Gendarme et les Gendarmettes (1982)[49][50]
La Collectionneuse (1967)
La Chamade (1968)
Les Biches (1968)
La Piscine (1969)
Le Viager (1972)
La Cage aux Folles (1978)
Le Coup du parapluie (1980)
Le Beau Monde (1981)
Les Sous-doués en vacances (1981)
Trilogy by Max Pécas: Les Branchés à Saint-Tropez (1983), Deux enfoirés à Saint-Tropez (1986) and On se calme et on boit frais à Saint-Tropez (1987)
A Summer in St. Tropez (1984)
Le Facteur de Saint-Tropez (1985)
Les Randonneurs à Saint-Tropez (2008)
Television series
Sous le soleil, broadcast in over 100 countries by the name "Saint-Tropez"
Emily in Paris, an American-French romantic-comedy-drama had one episode in Saint-Tropez "Do You Know the Way to St. Tropez?"
Literature
Saint-Tropez, avec des lithographies originales by Bernard Buffet (1979)
Saint-Tropez d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, avec des photographies by Luc Fournol (1981) by Annabel Buffet
Les Lionnes by Saint-Tropez by Jacqueline Monsigny, 1989
La folle histoire et véridique histoire de Saint-Tropez by Yves Bigot, 1998
Sunset in St. Tropez by Danielle Steel, 2004
Rester normal à Saint-Tropez, strip cartoon by Frédéric Beigbeder, 2004
La Légende de Saint-Tropez by Henry-Jean Servat, preface by Brigitte Bardot, éditions Assouline, 2003
Paintings
Port of Saint-Tropez, Paul Signac (1899)
Port of Saint-Tropez, Henri Lebasque (before 1936)
A panoramic view of Saint-Tropez by Paul Leduc (1876–1943)
(Wikipedia)
Saint-Tropez [sɛ̃tʁɔpe] (provenzalisch Sant-Troupès) ist eine französische Gemeinde und ein kleiner Hafenort mit 3.586 Einwohnern (Stand 1. Januar 2022) an der Mittelmeerküste (Côte d’Azur) im Département Var in der Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Die Gemeinde gehört zum Kanton Sainte-Maxime im Arrondissement Draguignan.
Beschreibung
Saint-Tropez befindet sich am östlichen Fuß des Maurenmassivs, am Nordufer einer Halbinsel.
Das damalige Fischerdorf zog gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts zahlreiche Künstler wie Paul Signac, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Raoul Dufy, Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Henri Manguin und andere an, deren Werke heute im Musée de l’Annonciade in der Nähe des Hafens ausgestellt sind. Der Schriftsteller Guy de Maupassant schrieb ein Tagebuch, das er 1888 unter dem Titel Sur l’eau veröffentlichte.
In der Zwischenkriegszeit waren Schriftsteller wie Kurt Tucholsky, Sybille Bedford, Colette und viele andere von der Schönheit des Ortes begeistert.
Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg erlebte Saint-Tropez einen weiteren Aufschwung. Es wurde zu einem Treffpunkt von Künstlern, Schriftstellern (Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Boris Vian und Françoise Sagan) und der Oberschicht.
Saint-Tropez ist berühmt für seinen großen Yachthafen und die Baie de Pampelonne, den größten Sandstrand der Côte d’Azur, der allerdings überwiegend auf dem Territorium der Nachbargemeinde Ramatuelle liegt. Viele prominente Europäer verbringen ihren Urlaub in Saint-Tropez, unter anderem in den – wiederum zu Ramatuelle gehörenden – Strandclubs Tahiti Plage, Club 55, Nikki Beach, Aqua Club, Bagatelle Beach und vielen weiteren. In Saint-Tropez gibt es zahlreiche gehobene Restaurants und Läden.
Die Ortschaft wird von einer 1602 bis 1607 gebauten Zitadelle (La Citadelle) mit Ausblick auf die Stadt überragt. Sie beherbergt ein Museum für Seefahrts- und Ortsgeschichte.
In Deutschland wurde Saint-Tropez in den 1950er- und 1960er-Jahren vor allem bekannt durch Gunter Sachs (1932–2011) und Brigitte Bardot (* 1934) sowie durch die Gendarmen-Filme (1964–1982) mit Louis de Funès. In der ehemaligen Polizeiwache, die Handlungsort der Gendarmerie-Filme war, gibt es seit 2016 ein Museum, das Musée de la Gendarmerie et du Cinéma de Saint-Tropez.
Geschichte
Saint-Tropez, benannt nach dem Heiligen Torpes, einem frühchristlichen Märtyrer, welcher im 1. Jahrhundert enthauptet wurde, war bis ins 20. Jahrhundert nur ein einfaches Fischerdörfchen. Die strategisch günstige Lage interessierte seit dem 8. Jahrhundert Herrscher und Machthaber. 1944 landeten alliierte Truppen im Laufe der Operation Dragoon bei Saint-Tropez. 1965 entstand am äußeren Ende der Bucht ein künstliches Mini-Venedig (Port Grimaud). Das Hinterland war früher viel stärker bewohnt als heute. Die Bauern zogen weg, weil sie mit der Landwirtschaft und den Touristen sehr schlecht verdienten.
Verkehr
Im Straßenverkehr sind im Juli und August tagsüber von etwa 10 bis 20 Uhr etwa zweistündige Verzögerungen die Regel. Saint-Tropez ist durch Personenfähren von Sainte-Maxime aus erreichbar. Die Busse der Varlib verbinden Saint-Tropez u. a. mit Saint-Raphaël und Toulon. Einen Bahnanschluss hat Saint-Tropez seit der Stilllegung der Schmalspurbahn Train des Pignes nicht mehr. 15 Kilometer südwestlich des Ortes liegt der Flughafen Saint-Tropez. Internationalen Anschluss hat Saint-Tropez primär durch den Flughafen Nizza Côte d’Azur, der etwa eineinhalb Stunden Autofahrt (ca. 105 Kilometer Fahrstrecke) entfernt liegt. Der Flughafen Marseille Provence ist in etwa einer Stunde und 45 Minuten (ca. 145 Kilometer Fahrstrecke) zu erreichen und der Flughafen Toulon-Hyères in nur einer Stunde.
Sehenswürdigkeiten
La Citadelle
Die Festung oberhalb der Stadt ist ein sechseckiger, wuchtiger Bau aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Hier befindet sich auch das Marinemuseum Musée de la Citadelle, in dem u. a. die Geschichte über den Ort und die Umgebung dokumentiert ist. Von der Plattform der Festungsanlage hat man einen imposanten Blick über Saint-Tropez und den Golf von Saint-Tropez.
Musée de l’Annonciade
In der ehemaligen Kapelle aus dem 16. Jahrhundert ist die Kunstsammlung des Industriellen Georges Grammont untergebracht.
Musée de la gendarmerie et du cinéma (seit 2016)
Place des Lices
Auf dem mit Platanen bestandenen Platz werden jeden Dienstag und Samstag provenzalische Spezialitäten angeboten. Zwischen den Markttagen bietet er die Möglichkeit, in Ruhe unter den Bäumen zu sitzen und den Boule-Spielern bei ihrem Zeitvertreib zuzusehen.
Hafen mit Môle Jean-Réveille
Direkt am historischen Ortskern liegen der Yachthafen und der alte Hafen. In den Sommermonaten ist hier ein mondäner Treffpunkt für die Wohlhabenden aus aller Welt.
Quartier de la Ponche
Maison des Papillons
Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption de Saint-Tropez
Mitten in der Altstadt, umgeben von romantischen Gassen, steht die aus dem 16. Jahrhundert stammende Kirche. Nach der zwischenzeitlichen Zerstörung wurde sie zwischen 1769 und 1784 neu aufgebaut. Lediglich der im Jahr 1694 erbaute Turm ist von dem ursprünglichen Bau übrig geblieben. Er leuchtet in Gelb und Ocker über der Stadt und ist ein unverkennbares Wahrzeichen des Ortes.
Cimetière Marin
pittoresker Friedhof mit Meerblick
Strände Canebiers und Pampelonne
Waldbrände
In den Sommermonaten kommt es in der ausgedörrten, mit Pinien bewachsenen Umgebung von Saint-Tropez entlang des Maurenmassivs seit Jahrhunderten immer wieder zu verheerenden Waldbränden. Bereits im Jahr 1271 wurde davon berichtet. Einwohner und Touristen werden gelegentlich vor den Flammen am Rand der Stadt evakuiert.
Kunst und Saint-Tropez
In der Geschichte der modernen Kunst spielt Saint-Tropez eine herausragende Rolle.
Paul Signac entdeckte diesen lichterfüllten Ort und holte Maler wie Matisse, Bonnard oder Marquet nach Saint-Tropez. Hier entwickelte sich die Malerei vom Pointillismus zum Fauvismus. Diese Entwicklung ist im Musée de l’Annonciade von Saint-Tropez eingehend dokumentiert. Alf Bayrle verbrachte zwischen 1928 und 1934 Monate in Saint-Tropez als Gast bei Madame Aude.
Pablo Picasso malte hier die Odalisque.
Auch für die nächste Generation blieb Saint-Tropez ein Anziehungspunkt. Bernard Buffet, Massimo Campigli, David Hockney lebten und arbeiteten in Saint-Tropez. Heute setzt der in Saint-Tropez lebende Maler Stefan Szczesny diese Tradition fort.
In den französischen Gelben Seiten sind in Saint-Tropez 14 Kunstgalerien verzeichnet.
Musik
Das Klischee von Saint-Tropez als Luxusurlaubsort der High Society hat zu einer Erwähnung des Ortes in zahlreichen Liedtexten geführt wie z. B. Welcome to St. Tropez von DJ Antoine. Auch in Partyschlagern und Raptexten wird Saint-Tropez genannt.
Veranstaltungen
Saint-Tropez ist Austragungsort des seit 2021 stattfindenden Tennisturniers Saint-Tropez Open.
Persönlichkeiten
Marcel Aubour (* 1940), Fußballspieler
Arthur Bauchet (* 2000), paralympischer Alpinskifahrer
Salim Ben Seghir (* 2003), Fußballspieler
Mit Saint-Tropez verbunden
Brigitte Bardot (* 1934), Schauspielerin, Sängerin, Model und Tierschützerin, lebt hier seit 1958
(Wikipedia)
Otras obras de Paul Signac en Asnières
Una teoría nueva.
(.....)
“El lugar exacto donde se tomó la foto es justo al lado del muelle donde Signac amarró su gran bote. Así lo atestiguan dos pinturas, realizadas el mismo día de 1888, colocando el caballete en el barco. Uno tiene una vista hacia la isla de La Grande Jatte y el otro hacia los dos puentes opuestos, simplemente girando el stand 180 grados.
(Obras de arriba. Debajo otra obra con el barquito de Signac).
En la foto, Bernard y el hombre de espaldas descansan los codos sobre una mesa redonda de hierro y están sentados en una silla de paja”, describe De Robertis.
“¿Dónde podrían haber encontrado sillas y una mesa si Bernard vivía a unas manzanas de distancia y Signac en una casa a no más de 100 metros de distancia?
Evidentemente, se las suministró el barco de Signac, que se mantuvo cerca de la casa para facilitar su uso.
(Ver Imagen 55a.)
La madre vivía en la rue de Paris 42 bis, cerca de la estación, como lo demuestra una escritura de herencia depositada en los archivos del ayuntamiento de París. Así que Signac no tuvo problemas para moverse en tren, incluso si el codiciado Montmartre estaba a sólo dos kilómetros de distancia y se podía ir andando”, concluye De Robertis.
-----------------------------------
Antonio De Robertis, también dice haber descubierto la única imagen de Van Gogh adulto, con 35 años de edad, en una fotografía de grupo conservada en el Instituto National d'Histoire de l'Art de París (INHA). 26/02/2016
Ver más adelante.
On the coldest day ever, a visit to see the best art ever, Metropolitan Museum, New York, February 2016.
Mykola Hlushchenko "Still life with a Glass Jar and a Bottle"
Paris 1920/30
Fauvism | Oil and Gouache on Paper | 11.69 x 16.53 inch
The Front View of the Painting
Ukrainian James Bond: a dandy, an artist and a spy
www.bbc.com/ukrainian/society/2015/11/151105_hlushchenko_...
Natalka Matyikhina
BBC Monitoring
13 November 2015
If someone decided to do a movie about his life, this film would be definitely as impressive and spectacular as the legendary 007 movies.
“A wonderful stature, he’s like made from muscles. He is a track and field champion. As a swimmer, he impresses even the people from Balearic Islands, who actually grew up by the sea. In the evening, when he wears his tuxedo though, he magically turns into a real dandy mingling with the international community in his hotel,” that was what the Parisian newspaper “Les Nouvelles litteráires” wrote about him in 1936.
“He treated women as a real Parisian. He knew how to speak to a woman and looked at her the way that she felt she was the most beautiful woman on Earth,” Tamara Boyko, the Executive General Manager of the “Culture” TV Channel, reminisced in her interview for the “Day” newspaper.
Meet Hlushchenko, Mykola Hlushchenko, a prominent Ukrainian artist, a people’s artist of USSR, a winner of the Shevchenko National Prize, pride and glory of Ukrainian visual arts, a “Ukrainian Monet”, and, in addition to that, an illegal Soviet spy operating under the code name “Yarema”.
Ukrainian immigrant
Native of current Dnipropetrovsk region, young Hlushchenko immigrated to Germany in 1919. He graduated from the private arts school and academy there.
In Berlin Hlushchenko met the future writer and filmmaker Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who worked as a Soviet diplomat at that time. He was the one who recruited the beginner artists as a Soviet spy.
In 1924 Hlushchenko moved to Paris. There, on 23 Rue de Volontairs, with support of the Hetman of Ukrainian People’s Republic Pavlo Skoropadsky he opened an art studio. This art studio was frequently visited by the leaders of different Ukrainian immigrant groups, among them one of the founders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Dmytro Andrievsky and a Colonel of Ukrainian Galician Army Vasyl Vyshyvany.
Active social life and lots of connections helped Hlushchenko gather information about the activities of various “hostile anti-Soviet and nationalist organizations”.
Throwing eggs at Picasso
That was when Hlushchenko became friends with the Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vynnychenko. There is a theory that keeping him under surveillance was one of the tasks of the agent “Yarema”. Once Vynnychenko asked Hlushchenko to paint his summer house, and Hlushchenko painted it… drawing the portraits of Ukrainian hetmans.
Both Hlushchenko and Vynnychenko couldn’t really stand Picasso’s artwork. During the first Picasso’s exhibition in Paris they threw rotten apples and eggs at the artist and the visitors. That is quite interesting though that the first naturist beach in Paris was organized by Hlushchenko and Vynnychenko.
A report for Stalin
After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Hlushenko received a task form the Soviet authorities to focus on gathering information about the German defense industry. It was thanks to his connections that the Centre in Moscow was able to obtain secret technical plans of 205 types of military equipment including the engines of German fighter aircrafts.
The State archives of the Security Service of Ukraine still have a copy of a report of the agent “Yarema” where he stressed that despite an agreement between Germany and USSR, German government actively prepares for the war against the Soviet Union.
According to the information “Yarema” provided, under the conditions of overwhelming secrecy, German-Ukrainian pocket dictionaries have been issued in Germany for the infantry and pilots, as well as detailed topographic maps of the entire territory of Ukraine and military and topographic, economic and political reviews of all its regions.
It is interesting that this report was seen by Stalin on 10 June 1940, five months earlier than the radio-telegram sent by Richard Sorge on 18 November from Japan.
A Hitler’s gift
At the beginning of 1940 the Soviet authorities charged Hlushchenko with organizing of the Soviet visual arts exhibition in Berlin. On its last day, the Third Reich top officials attended the event, where the landscapes of the agent “Yarema” have been also exhibited.
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop told Hlushchenko that Hitler highly appreciated his talent and presented him with a memorable gift of an album containing the lithographs of his best water colour drawings.
Later Hlushchenko gave this album to Stalin who wished to make himself familiar with the Fuehrer’s artwork.
“The manuscripts don’t burn”
When the war started Hlushchenko moved to Moscow where he lived in a tiny room of nine square meters in a communal flat.
He left his intelligence service and decided to devote himself completely to the main purpose of his life – visual arts. In this period of time Hlushchenko created his paintings following the socialist realism style: “Lenin near the wall of the Communists”, “Defense of Moscow” etc.
In artistic circles he is famous first of all as a landscape painter. Until now his impressionist works created both in early and in mature periods of his life remain extremely popular.
Shortly before his death the artist has chosen 250 paintings created in 50s that, according to him, didn’t represent an artist Hlushchenko at all, and asked his wife to burn them. She didn’t comply with his request and promised him that these paintings will be never exhibited.
One can see the paintings of Mykola Hlushchenko in the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv.
Copyright © 2018 ВВС.
Translated by © Julia Lugovska
Mykola Petrovych Hlushchenko
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykola_Hlushchenko
Mykola Petrovych Hlushchenko est un artiste peintre ukrainien. Durant la Révolution russe, il fut mobilisé dans l'armée des volontaires de Dénikine, avant d'être fait prisonnier et déporté en Pologne. Il parvint à s'évader du camp de prisonniers, et rejoint finalement l'Allemagne à pied, où il intégra l'Académie des Arts de Berlin. Il en sortit diplômé en 1924, et dès l'année suivante, il commença à travailler à Paris, où ses œuvres attirèrent immédiatement l'attention des critiques. Au début des années 1930, en tant que membre de l'Association des Artistes Ukrainiens Indépendants, il participe à des grande expositions de peintures ukrainiennes au Musée national de Lviv.
En 1936, il déménagea en Union soviétique où il devint un collaborateur des services secrets soviétiques ; il est ainsi par exemple l'un des premiers à les prévenir du projet d'attaque de l'URSS par les Allemands au début de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. En 1944, il partit vivre à Kiev où il composa une série de peintures sur la Kiev d'après-guerre, ainsi que de nombreux paysages issus de ses voyages en France, Belgique, Suisse et Italie notamment.
Dans les années 1960, s'étant rapproché des nouveaux courants artistiques grâce à ses voyages à l'étranger, il enrichit ses œuvres avec des couleurs vives.
Parmi ses œuvres, on compte de nombreux paysages (France, Italie, Pays-Bas Ukraine), des natures mortes, des nus et des portraits. Il réalisa également de nombreuses commandes pour le gouvernement soviétique, et des portraits des écrivains français Henri Barbusse, Romain Rolland, Victor Margueritte et de même qu'un portrait du peintre Paul Signac.
Les oeuvres de Hlushchenko ont été exposées de son vivant, à Berlin (1924), Paris (à cinq reprises de 1925 а 1934), Milan (1927), Budapest (1930 et 1932), Stockholm (1931), Rome (1933), Lviv (1934 et 1935), Moscou (1943 et 1959), Belgrade (1966 et 1968), Londres (1966), Toronto (1967 à 1969) et plus de dix fois à Kiev.
1899. Oli sobre tela. 41,59 x 50,48 cm. Museu d'Art d'Indianapolis, Indianapolis. 79.292. Obra no exposada.
The Parisian Girl [La Parisienne], 1874 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir
From: National Museum Cardiff
In 1874 this painting was included in the first Impressionist exhibition. The sitter was Madame Henriette Henriot, who acted at the Odéon in 1863-68. By giving the painting the title La Parisienne, he indicated that it represents a type, rather than a particular individual.
The dress, which is extremely well painted, is a heavenly blue.' Formerly in the distinguished collection of Henri Rouart, a friend of Degas, where it was admired by such artists as Paul Signac, this work was purchased by Gwendoline Davies in 1913.
Visiting and display information
This image forms part of the monthly 'Curators Choice' series from Rhagor, the collections based website from Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.
What will your favourite item be?
Huile sur toile, 24 x 32 cm, juillet-août 1905, Bridgestone Art, Tokyo.
Cette vue de Collioure ancrant l'art de Matisse dans la perception du réel, avec ses verts acides et ses roses aigres évoquant l'atmosphère d'un jour de tempête, nous éloigne des méticuleux calculs pointillistes. Durant l'été 1905 Matisse écrit à Signac : "C'était la première fois de ma vie que j'étais content... mes choses ne sont peut-être pas très importantes mais elles ont le mérite d'exprimer mes sensations". Auparavant le tableau était la représentation d'un motif. Il s'agissait d'un circuit court soumis au contrôle de l'attention et de l'observation du peintre. Le tableau était une fenêtre ouverte sur le monde et l'encadrait. Désormais le circuit est plus long, l'oeuvre est achevée non plus quand elle semble reproduire l'objet, mais lorsque le peintre se sent déchargé de son émotion. Le tableau n'est plus seulement la fenêtre ouverte sur le monde, mais aussii l'homme derrière la fenêtre (cf. kerdonis.fr).
On the coldest day ever, a visit to see the best art ever, Metropolitan Museum, New York, February 2016.
Eglise romane Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Signac ; commune de Signac, département de la Haute-Garonne, région Midi-Pyrénées, France
Ce modeste édifice roman, à vaisseau unique terminé en abside en cul-de-four, est typique de la montagne commingeoise. Le portail de l’église fin du XIIème siècle ou début du XIIIème siècle permet de prendre conscience de l’influence régionale qu’a eu l’atelier de sculpteur de l’église de Saint-Béat. On est ici en présence d’une oeuvre d’art local, malhabile mais touchante : le sculpteur, avec ses moyens, a tenté de reproduire le tympan sculpté de Saint-Béat, réalisé au début du XIIème siècle. On retrouve, notamment, le cloisonnement des espaces : le Christ est isolé du symbole des quatre évangélistes par des baguettes sommaires remplaçant les colonnes boursouflées qui font la particularité du tympan de Saint-Béat.
(extrait de : www.festival-du-comminges.com/eglise-saint-jean-baptiste-...)
Coordonnées GPS : N42°54.325’ ; E0°37.641’
Saint-Tropez befindet sich an der Côte d’Azur, am östlichen Fuß des Massif des Maures. Das damalige Fischerdorf zog schon gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts zahlreiche Künstler wie Paul Signac, Henri Matisse und Pierre Bonnard an, deren Werke heute in dem neben dem Hafen gelegenen Musée de l'Annonciade zu bewundern sind.
Der Aufschwung Saint-Tropez begann in den 1950er Jahren, als sich der Ort zu einem Treffpunkt von Künstlern und der High Society entwickelte. Unter Stammgästen wird der Ort auch nur kurz Saint Trop' genannt, von Einheimischen scherzhaft auch Sans trop d' pèse (nicht allzu sehr ins Gewicht fallend).
Saint-Tropez ist berühmt für seinen großen Yachthafen und die Baie de Pampelonne, den größten Sandstrand der Côte d´Azur, der allerdings überwiegend auf dem Territorium der Nachbargemeinde Ramatuelle liegt.
Viele prominente Europäer verbringen ihren Urlaub in Saint-Tropez, unter anderem in den – wiederum zu Ramatuelle gehörenden – berühmten Strandclubs Tahiti Plage, Club 55, Nikki Beach und Aqua Club. Den vielen reichen Urlauber stehen in Saint-Tropez zahlreiche teure Restaurants und Boutiquen zur Verfügung.
Die Ortschaft wird von einer 1592 entstandenen Zitadelle („La Citadelle“) überragt, von der man einen schönen Ausblick hat. Sie beherbergt ein Museum für Seefahrts- und Ortsgeschichte. Saint-Tropez hat nur 5275 Einwohner (Stand 1. Januar 2008), über das Jahr verteilt sind jedoch etwa fünf Millionen Besucher dort.
In Deutschland ist Saint-Tropez vor allem durch Gunter Sachs und Brigitte Bardot sowie durch die Gendarmerie-Filme mit Louis de Funès bekannt geworden.
Quelle: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia