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Lot Essay
The history of this painting is intriguing. It was shown at the Salon of the Socit Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1890, the year of this exhibition's inauguration. The whereabouts of the paintin then remain obscure until it resurfaced in Moscow in 1908. Les Pivoines was purchased there by a German banker, Ephim Gold, who was drawn to the work because the central red-haired figure bore a strong resemblance to his beloved wife Fania. The couple took the painting back to Berliln where it joined a large collection of art, including several Chagalls. Around 1983, threatened with arrest by the Nazis, the Golds fled to the home of their good friends Boris and Fania Soble who lived in the relative saftely of Paris. The Nazis entered the Golds' home in Berlin and reputedly machine-gunned the collection. Mrs. Soble, having a German visa, drove to Berlin with her chaffeur, where she cut all the paintings off their stretchers, rolled them up , stowed them in the car and returned to Paris.
Some of the collection was sold and with the funds the Golds set sail for New York where they took an apartment in the 70s and remained there until their deaths in 1956 and 1958. A month before Mr. Gold died, having already suffered a heart attack and with failing eyesight, he gave the painting to a close and long-standing friend who had just give birth to a daugher. His words to her were "My old eyes can't see the painting - I want young eyes to see it." It has remained in her collection until now.
After many years of submitting works to the Salon with limted success, La Touche was persuaded by his close friend, Felix Bracquemond to change his style and subject matter. The early works were very much in the realist tradition of peasant interiors and depictions of Normandy legends. However, he was not unaware of the Impressionists as he frequented La Nouvelle Athnes where he befriended Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet. His friendship with Manet began in 1877 when La Touche had sought to become his student. Manet replied that he had nothing to teach him and that he should only paint what he saw, and that in painting there is no black or white, only the colours of the rainbow. It was not until 1889 that La Touche began heeding this advice. The two works, Les Pivoines and Les Phlox which he produced that year were the key works of his career. The year 1980 was a watershed in French painting when a group of artists led by Meisonnier and Puvis de Chavannes seceded from the traditional Salon to form the new Socit Nationale des Beaux-Arts. It was at the first exhibition of this group that La Touche showed Les Pivoines and Les Phlox, the latter of which was bought for the nation and hangs today in the Muse de La Roche-sur-Yon.
La Touche created these magnificent works during one of the happiest periods of his life, inspired in part no doubt by the beauty of his surrounding at the family home in Saint Cloud with its magnificent garden cultivated by Mme La Touche. These works convey an intimacy through the compelling compositional devices of the central motifs of the tree and the screen of flowers respectively. We are invited into sun-dappled glades where the warmth and stillness is almost palpable, but not as intruders. The woman looks out almost as if called, while the little girl is happy in her high chair, not even missing her discarded dolls that sit beneath the tree amidst the golden space of contentment.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Gaston La Touche catalogue raisonn by Roy Brindley and Selena Evans.
Some of the collection was sold and with the funds the Golds set sail for New York where they took an apartment in the 70s and remained there until their deaths in 1956 and 1958. A month before Mr. Gold died, having already suffered a heart attack and with failing eyesight, he gave the painting to a close and long-standing friend who had just give birth to a daugher. His words to her were "My old eyes can't see the painting - I want young eyes to see it." It has remained in her collection until now.
After many years of submitting works to the Salon with limted success, La Touche was persuaded by his close friend, Felix Bracquemond to change his style and subject matter. The early works were very much in the realist tradition of peasant interiors and depictions of Normandy legends. However, he was not unaware of the Impressionists as he frequented La Nouvelle Athnes where he befriended Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet. His friendship with Manet began in 1877 when La Touche had sought to become his student. Manet replied that he had nothing to teach him and that he should only paint what he saw, and that in painting there is no black or white, only the colours of the rainbow. It was not until 1889 that La Touche began heeding this advice. The two works, Les Pivoines and Les Phlox which he produced that year were the key works of his career. The year 1980 was a watershed in French painting when a group of artists led by Meisonnier and Puvis de Chavannes seceded from the traditional Salon to form the new Socit Nationale des Beaux-Arts. It was at the first exhibition of this group that La Touche showed Les Pivoines and Les Phlox, the latter of which was bought for the nation and hangs today in the Muse de La Roche-sur-Yon.
La Touche created these magnificent works during one of the happiest periods of his life, inspired in part no doubt by the beauty of his surrounding at the family home in Saint Cloud with its magnificent garden cultivated by Mme La Touche. These works convey an intimacy through the compelling compositional devices of the central motifs of the tree and the screen of flowers respectively. We are invited into sun-dappled glades where the warmth and stillness is almost palpable, but not as intruders. The woman looks out almost as if called, while the little girl is happy in her high chair, not even missing her discarded dolls that sit beneath the tree amidst the golden space of contentment.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Gaston La Touche catalogue raisonn by Roy Brindley and Selena Evans.