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376 - Charles FILIGER (1863–1928) La Maison du Pen-Du, second half…
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Estimate €120,000 - €150,000
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Description
Charles FILIGER (1863–1928) La Maison du Pen-Du, second half of 1890 Gouache on both sides and pencil grid lines on cardboard, signed lower left: FILIGER 19.5 x 29.5 cm On the reverse: Study of three teenagers, c. 1891 Gouache on cardboard 19.5 x 29.5 cm Provenance: - Maxime Maufra Collection: probably exchanged between Filiger and Maufra in September 1891 for the painting *View of the Port of Le Pouldu* (or *La Jetée*) from 1891 (private collection) - Collection of his son Émile Maufra - Collection of his grandson Yves Maufra until 2022, then passed down through the family Exhibitions: - 1950: Quimper, Museum of Fine Arts, July–September 1950, ‘Gauguin and the Pont-Aven Group’, no. 80, ‘Landscape’. - 1953: Pont-Aven, Town Hall, 16 August – 13 September 1953, Commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), no. 15, Breton Landscape. - 1958: Quimper, Museum of Fine Arts, 6 July – 30 September 1958, Tribute to Sérusier and the painters of the Pont-Aven Group, no. 107, p. 21, Landscape at Le Pouldu. - 1961: Saint-Denis, Museum of History and Art, 8 April – 4 May 1961, ‘Brittany’, no. 35, ‘Marie Henry’s House at Le Pouldu’. - 1961: Pont-Aven, Town Hall, 8 August – 14 September 1961, ‘Gauguin and his friends’, no. 74, ‘Landscape of Brittany’. - 1966: Vannes, Limur Museum, 11 July – 30 September 1966, Henry Moret – Emile Jourdan Retrospective – Roderic O’Conor – Wladislaw Slewinski – Unpublished Documents on the Pont-Aven School, no. 141, *The Hangman’s House* in Le Pouldu. - 1978: Quimper, Museum of Fine Arts, 15 July – 16 October 1978; Rennes, Museum of Fine Arts, 24 October – 31 December 1978; Nantes, Museum of Fine Arts, January – March 1979, The Pont-Aven School in the Public and Private Collections of Brittany, no. 35, reprint: front, *La Maison du pendu*, parabolic landscape; and reverse. - 1981: Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée départemental du Prieuré, 14 November 1981 – 15 February 1982, and Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 5 March – 30 April 1982, Charles Filiger, Drawings, Gouaches, Watercolours, no. 18, p. 45, reproduction of the front on pp. 18 and 45, *La Maison du Pendu I*, and of the back on p. 44. - 1988: Plougastel-Daoulas, Maison du Patrimoine, July–August 1988, ‘Hommage à Filiger’, no. 5, p. 15, reproduction of the front on p. 15 and the reverse on p. 19. - 2003: Pont-Aven, museum, 28 June – 29 September 2003, *Kenavo monsieur Gauguin!*, no. 18, p. 68, reproduced on pp. 34 and 69 for the front and on p. 68. Bibliography: - Alfred Jarry and the Arts, ‘Charles Filiger in 1894, on his meeting with Alfred Jarry at Le Pouldu’, proceedings of the Laval symposium, 2007, Paris, Société des amis d’Alfred Jarry, and Tusson, De Lérot, 2007, illustration IV of the front - Grossvogel Jill Elyse, Claude-Emile Schuffenecker, catalogue raisonné, supplement, self-published, Chicago, 2008, reproduction of *Three Adolescents* p. 14 - Jacob Mira, *Filiger the Unknown*, Paris, Édition du Bateau Lavoir, 1989, for the front side no. 80 p. 176 (the author confuses the two versions: the reproduction on p. 61 is that of cat. 47) and for the reverse, no. 19, pp. 162–163, reproduction on p. 25. - Kobler, Virginie Lee, *Charles Filiger, Synthetist, Symbolist and Recluse*, PhD thesis, Seattle, University of Washington, June 1981, reproduction on p. XXVII, p. 141 of the front side. La Rochefoucauld, Antoine de, ‘Filiger’, *Le Cœur*, July–August 1893, p. 6. - Puget, Catherine, Jaworska, Wladyslawa and Delouche, Denise, *Gauguin and his friends in Pont-Aven*, published by Le Chasse-marée / ArMen, Douarnenez, 1989, reprinted on p. 60 (front). - Catherine Puget, ‘Charles Filiger 1863–1928’, *Petite Encyclopédie des peintres de Bretagne*, Morlaix, Le Télégramme, 2001, p. 2, reprinted on the front cover and p. 3 of the front cover. - Gilda Thomas, ‘A Certain Charles Filiger’, *L’Œil*, no. 321, 1982, reprinted on p. 45 of the front cover. It’s a lovely story: Gauguin, Filiger, Sérusier and De Haan broke away from their seclusion at Le Pouldu to come and celebrate 14 July 1890 in Pont-Aven. At the Auberge Gloanec, they spent the evening with a few local painters, including Maxime Maufra. Maufra was so struck by this encounter that he later decided to visit Le Pouldu. Unfortunately, Gauguin had just left and Filiger was alone at the Buvette de la Plage. However, Filiger, having witnessed all the artistic experiments undertaken since 1888, was able to talk to him about them and show him the works by Gauguin that had been left in storage. Not to mention the décor of the dining room, which was still in place. This convinced Maufra to return the following year for several months, during which time he developed his relationship with Filiger, who became a friend. The two painters exchanged works: a *View of the Harbour at Le Pouldu* from one, and *The House at Pen-du* from the other. The gouache given to him by Filiger is a double-sided ‘working’ study: on one side, the Maison du Pen-du in Le Pouldu; on the other, three teenagers. Sometime in 1890, probably towards the end of the year, Charles Filiger sketched the ‘Maison du Pen-du’, which in Breton means ‘black head’ or ‘isolated house’, situated at the far end of Grands Sables beach in Le Pouldu on a rocky promontory, a few hundred metres from the Buvette de la Plage where he was staying. His gouache, with a grid layout, is undoubtedly the result of several pencil studies that have since been lost or destroyed. It perfectly illustrates the painter’s new technique, developed through his association with Gauguin, in particular the juxtaposition of flat areas of colour with simplified forms. Then, in late 1890, he produced a slightly larger version in gouache, H. 25 – L. 37.5 (private collection), which was exhibited at the Salon des XX in Brussels in the spring of 1891. This latter work is signed ‘Filliger’ with two ‘l’s, in accordance with his civil registration name, as he was doing at the time. However, when Filiger presented Maufra with the study with the grid, he signed it ‘Filiger’ with a single ‘l’, which had recently become his signature. Three studies of adolescents were drawn on the reverse side around 1891, no doubt to save paper. Filiger found young boys and girls at Le Pouldu who served as his models, particularly for religious scenes he conceived whilst there. This particular type of adolescent, notable for his androgynous appearance and hairstyle, can be seen in works such as Saint John the Baptist (private collection) or The Virgin with Angels (private collection). Maufra kept this gouache by Filiger throughout his life, both as one of his friend’s rare landscapes and, no doubt, as a memento of a formative period during which he underwent a radical transformation, embracing the principles of Pont-Aven Synthetism. André Cariou
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About the sale MODERN PAINTINGS & BRETON SCHOOLS (Part Two)
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Auction time 07/18/2026 at 2:00 PM
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