1 / 2
Premium Osenat
23
-
Bernard BOUTET DE MONVEL (1881-1949)
Leaving the theatre, ci…
See original version (French)
23
-
Bernard BOUTET DE MONVEL (1881-1949)
Leaving the theatre, ci…
See original version (French)
Estimate €3,000 - €5,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Bernard BOUTET DE MONVEL (1881-1949)
Leaving the theatre, circa 1914
Watercolour and Indian ink on Whatman board
Signed lower left
Sheet size: 26.8 x 36 cm
Subject: 21.9 x 29 cm
With frame: 32.5 x 39.5 cm
Capturing the joyous elegance of a theatre outing on opening night, this watercolour shows a Delaunay Belleville 18 HP chassis, 4 cylinders, type 1913 - 1914, parked in front of the Théâtre des Variétés, whose neo-classical façade Bernard Boutet de Monvel particularly appreciated.
In 1905, the painter's brother, the memoirist Roger Boutet de Monvel, recounted the history of this theatre under the Second Empire in a book entitled "Les Variétés 1850 - 1870", for which Bernard Boutet de Monvel illustrated the cover. In fact, it is this brother, an inveterate dandy whose worldly snobbery Bernard Boutet de Monvel liked to affectionately joke about, that the artist depicts three-quarter facing, in the centre of the composition, with a white carnation in his buttonhole and an huit-reflets screwed onto his head.
On the far right of the composition, Bernard Boutet de Monvel uses a silhouette that was well known to his contemporaries, having been, almost identically, the subject of a plate published in March 1913 in the Gazette du Bon Ton and entitled "La cape noire" ("The Black Cape").
The colours are in very good condition.
At the end of 1913, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, painter and illustrator of elegance, "sportmen and dandies" - along with his brother Roger, the artist was one of the founding members of the Gazette du Bon Ton - was commissioned by Delaunay Belleville, a manufacturer of luxury car chassis, to produce four major watercolour advertisements to illustrate their 1914 catalogue.
These four watercolours, reproduced by Draeger and accompanied by a text by Roger Boutet de Monvel, were intended, through the modernity of their line and the clarity of their composition, to convey all the majesty and chic of the automobiles prized by King Edward VII, Tsar Nicholas II and President Roosevelt alike.
We would like to thank Stéphane-Jacques Addade, President of the European Chamber of Art Experts and expert in the work of Bernard Boutet de Monvel, for confirming the authenticity of this work.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like