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a drawing of a woman with a hat and a canea drawing of a man with a hat and a canedrawing of a man in a top hat and coat holding a canean old photo of a piece of paper on a white surfacean old picture of a picture of a man holding a gunan old book with a picture of a man on ita picture of a picture of a man holding a gunthree boxes of cigarettes and a lighter are sitting on a tablethree boxes of old fashioned items are sitting on a table
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210 - Maxime DETHOMAS (1867–1929), Venetian Gentleman by the Lagoo…
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Estimate €2,500 - €3,000
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Description
Maxime DETHOMAS (1867–1929), Venetian Gentleman by the Lagoon, c. 1906, study for Henri de Régnier’s *Venetian Sketches*, charcoal on brown paper – approx. 63 × 41 cm (in good overall condition) On the reverse: a label from the framer Gallès, a bookplate by Pierre Rambaud, and a label from the exhibition of works by Maxime Dethomas, held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from 12 April to 7 May 1922. Two handwritten inscriptions on the reverse: ‘This drawing by Maxime Dethomas was given to me in memory of Paul Dethomas to be made into a bookplate by Jacqueline Dethomas on 15 August 1917’; ‘This drawing was made to illustrate Henri de Reignier’s *Esquisses Vénitiennes*, published in 1906, Collection de l’Art Décoratif, 24 rue Saint Augustin (page 3 of the frontispiece)’. PROVENANCE: Pierre Rambaud; his bookplate on the reverse. EXHIBITION: Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Exhibition of works by Maxime Dethomas, 12 April – 7 May 1922; label on the reverse. INCLUDED: two matrices for bookplates by Pierre Rambaud. COMMENTARY: A painter, draughtsman, engraver and theatre set designer, Maxime Dethomas was part of the Parisian artistic milieu of the late 19th century. A friend of Degas, Forain and, above all, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, he shared with the latter a fondness for the Parisian world of entertainment and pleasure. In 1896, Toulouse-Lautrec produced a famous portrait of his friend, whose tall silhouette became a familiar feature of his artistic world. The Musée d’Orsay highlights this closeness between the two artists and the significance, within Dethomas’s oeuvre, of his powerful charcoal drawings. Italy, and Venice in particular, was also a key source of inspiration for Dethomas. His stays in Venice fed a repertoire of canals, gondolas, architecture and figures, to which was added his taste for the romanticised vision of 18th-century Venice. This fascination finds one of its most accomplished expressions in the illustrations he produced in 1906 for Henri de Régnier’s *Esquisses vénitiennes*. This drawing is very much part of that world. Against a depiction of the lagoon stands, almost like a theatrical silhouette, an elegant figure in 18th-century costume, wearing a plumed tricorn hat and carrying a sword. His appearance naturally brings to mind Casanova or Don Giovanni, figures inextricably linked in the modern imagination with a gallant and theatrical Venice, although it is not possible to formally identify the figure as either one. The old inscription on the reverse links the drawing directly to Régnier’s *Venetian Sketches*. Its inclusion in the retrospective exhibition dedicated to Dethomas at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1922, as evidenced by the label preserved on the reverse, further enhances the documentary value of this important drawing.
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About the sale VISSI D'ARTE
Auction location
Auction time 10/10/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits:
The Sovereign
See original version (French)
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