05-21-201005-22-2010
Skinner Auctions
Skinner AuctionsBoston MA
2507Boston
May 21, 2010 12:00 PMCalender
254A

Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877) Waves Crashing on a Rocky Shore/An Artist's Palette

Sell one like this
$33,180$28,000
Auction: American & European Works of Art - 2507Location: BostonDate / Time: May 21, 2010 12:00PM

Description:

Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877)

Waves Crashing on a Rocky Shore/An Artist's Palette
Dedicated and signed "Souvenir d'exil à mon ami Fuchs, G. Courbet" l.l.
Oil on panel, 14 1/2 x 26 1/4 in. (36.5 x 67.0 cm),framed (in a shadow box).
Condition: Minor retouch, craquelure, minor wear/losses to edges.

Provenance: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 123 palettes d'artistes peintes. June 10, 1911, no. 29; The Estate of Sir Edwin A.G. Manton.

Literature: Abel Letalle, Palettes d'artistes. Paris, 1912, pp. 37-38 as Marine, executé sur une palette; Robert Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet: catalogue raisonné , Geneva: Fondation Wildenstein; Lausanne: Biblioteque des Arts, 1977-1978, v. 2, peintures 1866-1877, no. 978.

N.B. In the second half of the 19th century in Paris, a fashion appeared for artists to paint an image on a palette, intended as a gift and often so inscribed. It might be said that the responsibility for this taste can be attributed at least in part to the activities of an American man named George Lucas. Lucas lived for many years in Paris, acting as an agent for the many American collectors in the city of that time. He was very successful in bringing artists and patrons together, and the artists often expressed their gratitude in the form of the painted and dedicated palettes --no doubt often encouraged by Lucas to do so. Ultimately his collection held 71 works on palette, now in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Though Courbet did not have a special relationship to Lucas, he would have been fully aware of the fashion. The inscription on the palette under review includes the phrase "souvenir d'exil." When Courbet left France for Switzerland in mid-1873, to remain there until his death in 1877, he considered himself to be in exile; not officially so, but self-exiled because he had to escape from the vengeance of the government towards him in the aftermath of the Commune. Thus, though the identity of M. Fuchs is not known, we can be sure that the palette was painted while Courbet was in Switzerland, and most probably given to a fellow exile of some kind, as Switzerland was known at the time as a political haven.

The inscription and signature on this painting appear to me to be characteristic of the artist's style. The painting itself shows under magnification the kind of varied, energetic activity of paint handling that is characteristic of Courbet's work. He chooses a familiar subject, stormy waves racing in to a rocky shore, but he does not choose familiar composition. Rather than the typical straight-on view which puts the viewer head-on to the waves, he invents a left-to-right composition dominated by high cliffs filling the larger left side of the palette space, while waves and sky fill the narrower space at the right. In short, he used the vagaries of the palette shape to create a new type of composition.

Sarah Faunce
Courbet Critical Catalogue
New York, April 2010

We wish to thank Sarah Faunce for her help cataloguing this lot.


Estimate $20,000-30,000

There are three small areas of fluorescence under UV - probably retouch covering marks from where tacks may have been used to mount the palette at one time. The areas are located as follows: far right side upper corner, about 0.5 cm in size; far left side about 0.3 cm; and at the very bottom point 0.2 cm.

There are three small areas of paint loss along the edge of the palette, possibly abrasions from prior mountings. Area one is at the top center and measures 1 cm across and 0.2 cm deep at the deepest point. Area two is along the bottom edge and measures 1.0 cm wide and 0.2 cm deep at the deepest point. Area three is on the far right side, 1.0 cm long and 0.2 cm deep. There are also two small nicks in the paint surface along the bottom edge, to the left of center, each measuring about 0.1 cm. Generally there is subtle wear around the edges of the palette.

There is stable craquelure in the area of the central wave and very fine stable craquelure in the upper left of the composition in the areas of dark pigment. There is yellowed varnish, most visible in the sky to the right of the flock of birds.

The back of the palette was not examined, due to the mounting.

Keywords

Gustave Courbet, Paris, George Lucas, Rocky Shore/An Artist, Georges Petit, Edwin A.G. Manton, Abel Letalle, Robert Fernier, Lausanne, Baltimore Museum of Art, France, paint handling, Sarah Faunce