1892

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1892 Te Poipoi (le matin) by Paul Gauguin
2007 SOLD 39 M$ including premium by Sotheby's

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​1892 The Tropical Peace of Paul Gauguin
2017 SOLD for £ 20.3M including premium

Paul Gauguin reaches his paradise in October 1891 in Mataiea, a village in the countryside 45 km away from Papeete. He takes care not to disturb the tranquility of the place. The inhabitants who are maintaining their ancestral customs welcome this foreigner. Without a competitor, without a false friend, without the need to prove his genius to his neighbors who now ignore his craft, Gauguin gets imbued with the exotic atmosphere and colors.

In 1892 in Mataiea, he meets his dream of developing a new art based on a subtle blend between the observation of landscapes and people and an exaggerated imagination of colors that will soon influence Matisse. His ideal landscape is not a topographical reality. His characters and horses are fixed for eternity in a static occupation.

Te Hare (la maison), oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm, is one of these peaceful scenes. This house is the hut that the painter rents in the village. Or not : it does not matter. It is dominated by a tall hibiscus tree. The extreme colors of tree and hills express the tropical moisture.

The rejection of Europe by Gauguin is extremely violent but not final. He returns to France with the intention of showing how his art has evolved. The exhibition of his Tahitian masterpieces by Durand-Ruel in 1894 horrifies Monet, Renoir and Pissarro. In the sale organized in 1895 at Drouot to finance the last exile of Gauguin, Te Hare is acquired by Daniel Halévy, encouraged by the last master who still understood and encouraged the artist, Edgar Degas.

Te Hare was sold in November 7, 1991 by Ader Picard Tajan for FF 52M, a very high price for that time. This painting is estimated £ 12M for sale by Christie's in London on February 28, lot 18. Painted in the same year, Le Vallon, 42 x 67 cm, was sold for £ 6.4M including premium by Christie's on June 21, 2011.

​Please watch the video shared by Christie's :

​1892 Charms of a Shiny Sun
​2019 SOLD for £ 19.5M including premium

Pointillism is the painstaking process by which Seurat and Signac apply their Divisionniste theories : intertwined colors generate an optical illusion of homogeneity which is more vibrant than a flat surface. Signac is experimenting with the brightest colors and tries to convince Seurat. Van Rysselberghe will however be the only one to follow him in that way.

In 1891 Seurat suddenly dies at 31 years old. Signac, very shocked, tries unsuccessfully to promote the art of his friend. In the same year Cross settles in Le Lavandou for therapeutic reasons. He advises Signac to come back to vigor under the sun of the South.

A great lover of yachting, Paul Signac leaves Brittany in the following year and sails to the Mediterranean Sea through the Canal du Midi. He is dazzled by Saint-Tropez, a small fishing village that is at that time only accessible by boat. He settles therein permanently. The beauty of this place isolated from the rest of the world satisfies his quest for an anarchist paradise on earth.

Signac immediately applies his artistic theories to the shiny sun of Saint-Tropez. On February 27 in London, Christie's sells as lot 26 an oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm painted in 1892, identified in his ledger as Opus 236 with the title "Le Port au soleil couchant". The splendid colors are enhanced in naive style outlines in the taste of Seurat.

The next Opus, 237, is titled Maisons du Port, Saint-Tropez. Signac applies here a less poetic drawing where the too visible dots come to blur the desire for a topographic realism. This smaller oil on canvas 47 x 55 cm was sold for $ 10.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2016.

​1892 Studies for the Card Players
​2015 SOLD for $ 21M including premium

In 1890, Paul Cézanne, sick and embittered, separated from his wife, is getting virtually alone with his art. His passion to apply his artistic theories opens a highly fruitful but insufficiently documented period. The dates and even the chronology of the five oil versions of the Joueurs de cartes are not identifiable.

He works as in the old days by executing preparatory sketches, with however a detail that changes everything. Nature can not be copied by the painter. The colors and contours express the atmosphere without requiring a preliminary drawing. This simple observation is one of the foundations of the figurative art of the following century.

In his exile away from the bourgeois society, Cézanne watches the peasants. They have differences : each one has his physical look, his straight or vaulted attitude, his behavior, his hat. The artist observes them individually before bringing them together in the group. The Joueurs de cartes are the deepest attempt by Cézanne to express, not reality, but life.

Cézanne made several preparatory watercolors for the Joueurs de cartes. Two of them, each showing one of the major players, have such a similar format and technique that they appear as pendants, certainly as the final study before one of the oils. They were made in 1892 or shortly after.

The watercolor of the smaller man, 47 x 30 cm, was sold for $ 19M including premium by Christie's on 1 May 2012. The character was identified : a gardener who worked for the artist.

The watercolor of the taller fellow, 48 x 32 cm, is estimated $ 18M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 9, lot 7A. A portrait of Père Alexandre was made by the same artist on the back of this paper.

The image below is limited to the upper part of the picture.

​1892 Only One Card Player
2012 SOLD 19 M$ including premium

One of the five versions of Cézanne's Joueurs de cartes (Card Players) became the most expensive work of art in the world when the news was published in February 2012: Qatar has paid $ 250M for it in a private sale.

Yet the study of the implementation of this theme by Cézanne is an uninterrupted series of questionmarks.

The artist is somehow isolated from the world at his home in Aix-en-Provence. He is an experimenter of the colors. Shaded, they form flat areas that come together to build the figurative scene. He painted the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, and self-portraits, and still lifes, and bathers.

Around 1890, he became interested in card players. He observes these humble men, a worker or a gardener of his house. They do not cheat, do not joke, they smoke and drink peacefully. They no longer need to understand the universe: they are totally focused on their unuseful game.

Cézanne selected that theme clearly for his own use, perhaps to counter his mystical doubts of an aging man in relatively poor health. We do not know the exact date of the five paintings, nor their precedence.

Made around 1892, a watercolor, 47 x 30 cm, is estimated $ 15M, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 1. This preliminary study shows the man who will be sitting on the right in the least animated three paintings, those showing only two players, which probably are the final versions.

POST SALE COMMENT

Great price for this watercolor : $ 19M including premium.

I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.

​​1892 Two Women and No Man
2015 SOLD for £ 10.8M including premium

The entry of scenes of Parisian prostitution into French art in the later nineteenth century was a revolt or disgust of the artists against bourgeois life. Coming from a family of great aristocracy, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec joined this trend of which he made his specialty.

Lautrec soon becomes a familiar of the brothels of Montmartre. He develops a specific technique of paint à l'essence that gives to oil painting a look similar as pastel. Living permanently with the girls, he received some commissions for the decoration of brothels.

The cripple artist is welcomed to such a point that he may attend the moments of rest and relaxation of the prostitutes. An observer of sensuality like Degas and Rodin, Lautrec is excited by the transgression of the bourgeois prohibition of the homosexuality. When they are not working, the girls in his brothels live their intimacy between them, without a man.

On February 3 in London, Sotheby's sells Au Lit : Le Baiser, an intimate scene where the viewer cannot dispute that the artist did not disturb the women in their erotic action. The sensuality emanating from this picture is strengthened by the fact that they are not naked.

This peinture à l'essence on panel 39 x 58 cm painted in 1892 is estimated £ 9M, lot 18.

Within the theme of lesbian intimacy by Lautrec, it anticipates L'Abandon (Le Repos), painted in 1895, sold for £ 6.2 million including premium by Christie's on 4 February 2009, and also the portfolio Elles printed in 1896.

​1892 Slightly More than a Chat on the Pillow
2015 SOLD for $ 12.5M including premium

The scenes of brothels, maisons closes as they were named in Paris, are not welcomed for the aristocracy or the bourgeoisie in the late nineteenth century.

The maisons closes are on the decline. The holders rely for their business on a fragile and ephemeral respectability compared with the street walkers, young provincial girls who transmit their diseases in an uncontrolled freedom and who are named the insoumises by their customers.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec appreciates that his infirmities prevent him from starting a family. His dwarfism which had been aggravated by an accident to the legs could indeed be hereditary.

In 1892, the madam of the rue d'Amboise takes some interest in the small man who is different from the other customers and whose artistic skill is already recognized. She commissions him with small portraits of her residents. Lautrec quietly observes them in their daily occupations.

These women who spend their professional time with men are homosexual, as their fellow women who run other exposed jobs like in circus, cabaret or music hall. In their time off, far away from the money of the males, they find together the only intimacy of their lives.

The artist takes advantage of his whereabouts in the maison of the rue d'Amboise for capturing scenes of female couples in bed which he realizes in paintings on boards according to his own technique à l'essence that imitates the pastel.

One of these paintings, quite hot although the women are not naked but in their underwear, 39 x 58 cm, was sold for £ 10.8 million including premium by Sotheby's on February 3, 2015.

A more tender scene also painted in 1892, 46 x 59 cm, is estimated $ 10M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 9, lot 16A. The two young brunettes, with their bodies comfortably laying within the linen, are closely embracing and make a sustained kiss on their shared pillow.

​1891-1893 Gauguin fled from Europe
2011 SOLD 11.3 M$ including premium

Gauguin is uncomfortable in Europe in 1891. He is too much beside his time. Painter, printmaker, sculptor, he uses all these techniques in search of a metaphysical truth that will never be attainable.

He is not really beside but actually ahead of his time with his paintings showing bold compositions and bright colors and his iconoclastic themes. He also embodies the new taste for primitivism, like the somehow naive philosophers of the eighteenth century who attempted empathy with the "noble savages".

Arriving in Tahiti, he believes finding there the freedom of thought, and also the sexual liberty. The young Tahitian women inspire him. The wooden sculpture for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 3 dates from this period of euphoria which ends in 1894 by his return to France.

It is the head of a young Tahitian woman with a serene expression, 24 cm high. The artist made for ​​this piece a pair of ear ornaments in boxwood and a necklace of coral and shells in native style with five rows which all remained in place on the statue.

As Modigliani will do after him, Gauguin was able to express in a bust his view of the ideal woman. He will present this so personal work to the daughter of a critic who was not hostile to his art. Today, $ 10M are expected.

The image is shared by Artdaily.

POST SALE COMMENT

The price is high, but no surprise: $ 11.3 million including premium.

​1892 Light on the Scheldt
​2017 SOLD for £ 8.5M including premium

The néo-impressionnisme of Seurat and Signac seeks to adapt to the painting the theories of Chevreul on color perception. The divisionnistes juxtapose their dots of pure colors supposed to recombine the complete spectrum from a remote observation.

The followers of this movement early reach its limits. The brightness can actually be spectacular but only if the composition is overwhelmed by yellow and orange. The weakening of the other colors considerably reduces the themes.

Seurat died prematurely in 1891. Signac left to meet the sun. His oil on canvas 47 x 55 cm painted in 1892 showing Saint-Tropez under a top midday sunshine was sold for $ 10.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2016.

Théo van Rysselberghe is a friend of Signac with whom he shares the anarchist opinions. He is convinced by the divisionnisme without joining its luministe variant promoted by Emile Claus and other Belgian néo-impressionnistes.

In 1892 and 1893 van Rysselberghe achieved some sensational luminosity in his oils on canvas. Decidedly attracted by the sun he settled in Provence in the late 1890s but already his art had become classic again.

On June 21 in London, Sotheby's sells L'Escaut en amont d'Anvers le soir, oil on canvas 67 x 90 cm painted in 1892. The composition is very simple, only displaying four poles and their reflections and a  small sailboat that merges into the twilight blue of the other bank of the river. Sky and water are glowing. Remaining in its original artist's frame this painting is estimated £ 7M, lot 59.

​1892 The Particles of Sunshine
​2016 SOLD for $ 10.7M including premium

A quest for independence in art and thought is typical of the late nineteenth century. Georges Seurat is a great experimenter of the artistic language. Beside him Paul Signac developed the technique of pointillisme (dot painting). Seurat died prematurely in 1891.

The compositions by Signac have the same geometric rigors as those by his friend, with a total respect for the perspective. Unlike the Impressionnistes, they do not tolerate a freedom of the brush. Signac works painstakingly in his studio from his watercolor sketches.

He follows the psychophysiological ideas of Charles Henry which are an application to art of the theory of the color spectrum by Chevreul. The landscape is reconstructed by particles of pure color juxtaposed without overlapping. The action of the retina reconstructs the scenery in its full brightness.

Paul Signac is independent in his art and in his life. Tempted by the anarchist theories, he enjoys sailing off the coasts of France aboard his small boat, the Olympia. He also helps the creativity of his fellow artists and is one of the most active organizers of the Salon des Indépendants, an exhibition of the avant-gardes that is held every year in Paris.

In 1892, the Olympia brings its sailor to Saint-Tropez which is only accessible by sea at that time. The sun of the Mediterranean Midi dazzles him as it had amazed Van Gogh. Signac buys a house where he invites his many friends. Thus was born the intense artistic life of the village, waiting to be taken over from 1956 by the movie stars.

On May 9 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view of the waterfront of Saint-Tropez, oil on canvas 47 x 55 cm painted by Paul Signac in 1892, lot 8 estimated $ 8M. The picture taken in full midday under hot sunshine is one of the best demonstrators of the expressive possibilities of the pointillisme.

​I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's :

1892 Faster, Stronger, Higher
2019 SOLD for $ 8.8M including premium

In 1888 the 25-year-old publicist Pierre de Coubertin decides to concentrate all his efforts on the integration of sport into educational systems. Traumatized by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he sees sport as a means to ensure peace in the world. The moment is good : the extension of the railroad has favored inter-city sports confrontations in several countries, and the telegraph facilitates the preparations.

With a remarkable open-mindedness, Coubertin compares the progress of sport in several countries. In England, the country of the fair play, football is a team sport practiced in colleges, including Rugby, and the establishment of official rules allows competitions. In Sweden the mental benefit of gymnastics is officially recognized. In the United States, sport opens the way to the practice of collective recreation. He does not like the use of sport for military training in Germany but recognizes its heroic character.

The time is also favorable for meetings of thematic clubs in England and France. They will support the development of the Coubertin project. In 1891 he promulgates a motto : citius, fortius, altius (later modified in its sequence). Coubertin is setting the example : on March 20, 1892 he is the referee in the final of the first French rugby championship.

Taking as a pretext the fifth anniversary of a running club, a conference is organized at the Sorbonne on November 25, 1892, with three speakers. Bourdon and Jusserand tell the history of the sport. Coubertin, entrusted for dealing with modern sport, concludes his speech by proposing the reestablishment of the Olympic Games.

In this seminal address, Coubertin's vision is universal. The most developed nations will help the others. It is a matter of practicing sports in common between athletes of all nations with a search for the individual excellence, but not yet of international competition or rewards.

The autograph draft of this Coubertin thesis, largely modified by the author in the preparation phase, is estimated $ 700K for sale by Sotheby's in New York on December 18, lot 173. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

Very remarkably, despite necessarily different visions of his international interlocutors, it is Coubertin himself who will concretize his concept. A January 1894 autograph document defining the stadium and sports passed at Goldin Auctions on October 29, 2016. In June 1894, Pierre de Coubertin creates the International Olympic Committee.