Madrid,
At the start of a season marked by the memory of patrons whose work went far beyond that of collectors, Fundación MAPFRE is presenting in Madrid, in addition to the tribute to the exhibition “31 Women” organized by Peggy Guggenheim, the exhibition “Paul Durand-Ruel and the last flashes of Impressionism,” which features works by artists little known in Spain and linked to the last generation of artists that the dealer supported, after promoting the recognition of the Barbizon School and Impressionism: the Post-Impressionists.
Henry Moret, Maxime Maufra, Gustave Loiseau, Georges d´Espagnat and Albert André worked in obvious contact with the Impressionist postulates and the Pont-Aven circle (especially the first three, who created numerous landscapes and seascapes), but also making their way towards new trends: André and D´Espagnat, closer to the Nabis, preferred to concentrate on portraits, genre scenes and decorative painting. The curator of the exhibition, Claire Durand-Ruel, attributes the lesser diffusion of these artists to the fact that the dealer would not live long enough to support them (he died in 1922, when he was ninety years old but they were at the height of their careers) and to the fact that it was a time of the blossoming of the avant-garde movements, with their advances appearing minor.
There are around sixty pieces that form part of the exhibition, works that the curator, great-great-granddaughter of Durand-Ruel, describes as “anti-depression pills” and that are offered to us after an introductory section on the figure of the collector, who is responsible for working methods with artists that anticipated those of most galleries today: he demanded exclusivity, bought their work in bulk, supported them at auctions and organized individual and collective shows both in Europe and the United States, and offered them a monthly salary. He understood and practically created mechanisms for the art market, became aware of the importance of maintaining a personal and trusting relationship with artists, whom he visited in their studios, and made their daily lives easier by allowing them to cover rent, travel or purchase materials. His family wanted to continue this work until the last of his galleries closed, fifty years ago. At the MAPFRE Foundation, a 19th-century living room has been recreated, presided over by a fine portrait of the patron by Renoir and with the doors that Espagnat made for the residence of his son Joseph (we will see other doors of his later).
Gustave Loiseau, the first of the artists examined, travelled to Pont-Aven on the advice of one of his teachers and there he became friends with Moret and Maufra, and all of them, in turn, with Gauguin, who at that time, like Bernard and Sérusier, was developing a synthetic style based on extensive planes of pure colour and broad brushstrokes that he combined with resources typical of the so-called cloisonnism, the framing with black lines, in reference to stained glass. These ways of doing things would not have much weight in Loiseau, still attached to the dynamism of the impressionist brushstrokes and simple modelling, as we can see in his compositions dedicated to the Seine and its tributary rivers, the English Channel or the Breton coasts; however, unlike his mentors, he avoided the brightest moments of the middle of the day to work at dawn or dusk. Of course, he also let himself be caught up in the bustle of the boulevards of Paris or Rouen beyond the stations.
As for his great friend Maufra, his great fascination was Turner, whose work he discovered on a youthful trip to London. His usual settings were the coasts of Normandy and Brittany and Gauguin, despite the obvious differences in their paths, encouraged him to persevere in his own: that of trying to capture flat landscapes with solid brushstrokes, but also paying attention to atmospheric effects. In his clearly structured compositions, human figures do not usually appear and the sea and rocks take centre stage against the sky. Other motifs of his were the nascent modernity in Paris or the purity of Breton country life.
The landscape triad of this exhibition culminates with Moret, trained in Paris and an early admirer of the Barbizon School. In 1888 he settled in Pont-Aven, and like the previous artists he met Gauguin, and in this case, his encounter with the lover of Tahiti would prove decisive: he approached his Breton themes from marked contours and flat colours, as we can see in his compositions in Recoletos. Hay harvesting and Meadow in Brittanywhere pinks and greens that are very characteristic of his palette also appear.
Durand-Ruel advised him to adopt smaller formats and soften his tones in order to find a better commercial outlet for his compositions, and he listened: as a result, his production became increasingly closer to Impressionism, as he also studied the chromatic changes brought about by the transformations of light throughout the day and the seasons.
Albert André, for his part, was not only employed as a painter: he also devoted himself to decoration and illustration, he was a museum curator and the first biographer of Renoir. He was associated with Bonnard, Matice Denis and Vuillard, thus coming close to the Nabi conception of painting, inherited from Gauguin’s synthesistism and his exaltation of the visible through intense colours. One of his most outstanding compositions, Woman with peacocksoffers us an evident decorative character, the same one with which he designed the doors that Durand-Ruel asked for his house in Paris, which have also arrived at MAPFRE.
His work progressed towards a more intimate approach, evident in his interiors and family scenes, and in more classical and calm brushstrokes. Pastel tones are also abundant in both his everyday scenes and his Mediterranean landscapes.
As we have said, George d’Espagnat’s career was also dominated by interiors and genre scenes rather than landscapes. Self-taught and perhaps more free in his references than the rest, he did particularly admire the Impressionists and used large canvases, although he did not always work outdoors and became increasingly decorative, drawing on the Nabis. In short, it is possible to find in his early pieces an anticipation of the Fauvist verve until, after moving to the south of France at the end of the 19th century, his palette softened. He evolved from his simplified backgrounds and clearly constructed compositions towards an intimacy and joy that can easily be linked to the late Renoir.
“Paul Durand-Ruel and the last flashes of impressionism”
MAPFRE FOUNDATION. RECOLETOS ROOM
Recoletos Walk, 23
Madrid
From September 19, 2024 to January 5, 2025
