LÉON BONNAT (French, 1834-1922)

Details

LÉON BONNAT (French, 1834-1922)

The Barber of Suez

signed Ln. Bonnat-- lower left--oil on canvas
31½ x 23in. (80 x 58.4cm.)

Provenance

Sourigue Collection; sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, Feb. 28, 1881 (lot 1, illustrated)
The DeZemler Collection of Barbershop Memorabilia; sale, Parke Bernet 84, New York, June 21-22, 1972

Literature

D'Enface, "Le Salon", Zigzags à la plume à travers l'art, April 30, 1876, p. 6
C. Yriarte, "Le Salon de 1876", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, June 1876, I, p. 699
D' Enface, "Le Salon", Zigzags à la plume a travers l'art, June 11, 1876, p.2
A. Meynell, "Our Living Artists: Léon Bonnat", Magazine of Art, 1881, IV, p. 242
J. Clarétie, Peintres et Sculpteurs Contemorains, Deuxieme serie, Paris, 1884, p. 145
L. Bauzon, "Léon Bonnat", Artistes Contemorains des Pas de Guyenne, Bearn, Saintonge et Languedoc, Bordeaux, 1889, pp. 8, 10, 11 and 12
L. Bénédité, "Léon Bonnat", Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1923, VII, p. 10
J. Landrigan, "The Forbes Magazine Collection at the Palais Mendoub, Tangier", Antiques, June 1982, p. 1387, pl. VI
D. Rosenthal, Orientalism, (exh. cat.), Rochester, 1982, no. 160 (illustrated)
W. Zimmer, "Fantasy and Realism Envelop Orientalism Show", The New York Times, Dec. 12, 1982
L. Nochlin, "The Imaginary Orient", Art in America, May 1983, pp. 130, 191 (illustrated)
A. Blaugrund, Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition, (exh. cat.), Philadelphia, 1989, pp. 235-236 (illustrated in color)
H. Honour, The Image of the Black in Western Art, Houston, 1986, 4, part 2, p. 113 (fig. 80)

Exhibited

Paris, Salon of 1876, no. 214
Hempstead, New York, The Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Art Pompier: Anti-Impressionism, Oct. 22-Dec. 15, 1974, no. 7
Rochester, New York, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800-1880, Aug. 27-Oct. 17, 1982, no. 6. This exhibition later travelled to Purchase, New York, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York College at Purchase, Nov. 4-Dec. 23, 1982
Norfolk, Virginia, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Paris 1889-American Artists at the Universal Exposition, Sep. 29-Dec. 31, 1989. This exhibition later travelled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Jan. 26-April 15, 1990; Memphis, Brooks Museum of Art, May 6-July 15, 1990 and New York, The New York Historical Society, Sept. 5-Nov. 15, 1990

Lot Essay

Bonnat accompanied Gérome to the Near East in 1869, however, The Barber of Suez was most likely painted in his Paris studio. He submitted this painting to the Salon of 1876. The arrangement of the two figures is simple, and yet still creates a feeling of monumentality and massiveness. The painting is especially beautiful in Bonnat's depiction of the hands of the barber and the tilted head of his customer-the manner in which the barber's fingers tightly pull the skin of the seated man, combined with the light that reflects off his fingernails and on the end of the razor emphasizing its sharp blade. At the lower right, the burning coals smouldering in the caldron are identified by their orange glow.