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Lot Essay
Béraud's elegant, incisive and often wry depictions of the fluttering social milieu of Belle Époque Paris, made him for Charles Baudelaire a 'Champion of the Heroism of Modern Life'.
Bal à la Présidence depicts a grand ball, one of the most favoured forms of entertainment amongst the privileged classes of the fin de siècle. Béraud renders sumptuous ballgowns, perhaps designed by the celebrated names Charles Frederick Worth or Jacques
Doucet, in vibrant pinks and ice-blues (two recently developed artificial dyes). Indeed such was Béraud's fine eye for the intricacies of fashion, that it lead to La Vie Parisienne
satirically promoting 'Maison Jean Béraud...Fabrics guaranteed to be of good complexion' (see M. Simon, Fashion in Art; The Second Empire and Impressionism, London, 1995, p. 137). Aside from fashion, etiquette was another pressing concern for anyone in 'society'. Books outlining the form one's behaviour should take, described down to the minutest detail, abounded. Le Magazine des demoiselles, published in 1857, prescribed the proper way to enter a ballroom : "One makes one's entrée as the familiar expression has it. This is generally a rather trying moment. All eyes are fixed on the new arrivals; their names are whispered...One needs to be a girl long accustomed to society, or else to have innate assurance, to pass this test without discomfort or embarrassment. There's no advice I can give here... except to be at all times what you should always be, timid and modest".
Bal à la Présidence is reminiscent of Béraud's Salon exhibit of 1878, Une Soirée dans L'Hôtel Caillebotte. The dresses in the present work, typically well-observed, also suggest a date of the late 1870s. Béraud was also known to incorporate portraits of public figures in his works, as Degas did, giving his Parisian world more individuality and offering the tantalising possibilty that it may one day be possible to identify some of the guests in Bal à la Présidence. Official recognition came to Béraud when he was awarded the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1887.
Bal à la Présidence depicts a grand ball, one of the most favoured forms of entertainment amongst the privileged classes of the fin de siècle. Béraud renders sumptuous ballgowns, perhaps designed by the celebrated names Charles Frederick Worth or Jacques
Doucet, in vibrant pinks and ice-blues (two recently developed artificial dyes). Indeed such was Béraud's fine eye for the intricacies of fashion, that it lead to La Vie Parisienne
satirically promoting 'Maison Jean Béraud...Fabrics guaranteed to be of good complexion' (see M. Simon, Fashion in Art; The Second Empire and Impressionism, London, 1995, p. 137). Aside from fashion, etiquette was another pressing concern for anyone in 'society'. Books outlining the form one's behaviour should take, described down to the minutest detail, abounded. Le Magazine des demoiselles, published in 1857, prescribed the proper way to enter a ballroom : "One makes one's entrée as the familiar expression has it. This is generally a rather trying moment. All eyes are fixed on the new arrivals; their names are whispered...One needs to be a girl long accustomed to society, or else to have innate assurance, to pass this test without discomfort or embarrassment. There's no advice I can give here... except to be at all times what you should always be, timid and modest".
Bal à la Présidence is reminiscent of Béraud's Salon exhibit of 1878, Une Soirée dans L'Hôtel Caillebotte. The dresses in the present work, typically well-observed, also suggest a date of the late 1870s. Béraud was also known to incorporate portraits of public figures in his works, as Degas did, giving his Parisian world more individuality and offering the tantalising possibilty that it may one day be possible to identify some of the guests in Bal à la Présidence. Official recognition came to Béraud when he was awarded the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1887.