Wintertuin (Wintergarden)
18.03 – 19.06.2011
A selection of modern masterpieces from the Liege collections.
For the first time, an exchange is taking place between the collections of the city of Liege and the Bonnefantenmuseum. However close Maastricht and Liege may be geographically, all too often the cultural and particularly the language differences prevent good mutual contact. Following a presentation of the Bonnefantenmuseum's collection at our neighbours, it is now their turn to come here.
The collection of classic moderns is of exceptionally high quality. The TEFAF 2011 offers us an excellent opportunity to introduce the professionals and the wider public to these 'gems' from Liege. They have been collected since the 1920s and owe their cohesion in part to two striking actions of the period. Firstly, there was the (partial) acquisition of the private collection of Fernand Graindorge, a European collector who for many years set the pace of art in and around Liege. Secondly, nine paintings were acquired from the famous 1939 auction in Lucerne of the so-called 'Entartete Kunst'; art labelled as degenerate by Adolf Hitler's regime. This yielded the paintings by James Ensor, Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso, among others.
In Wintertuin, the Bonnefantenmuseum is presenting forty classic masterpieces from the collections of the city of Liege and the French-speaking Community of Belgium, including six works of exceptionally high quality known as the 'Belgian national treasure' (Ensor, Gauguin, Kokoschka, Libermann, Marc and Picasso).
On display is a selection of great names from French and Belgian Pre-Impressionism and Impressionism up to representatives of the 'Ecole de Paris' from the first quarter of the twentieth century, including works by Monet, Pissarro, Ensor, Van Rysselberghe, Signac, Picasso, Chagall, Marc, Kokoschka, Gauguin, Léger and Arp. A selection from Wintertuin is given below in chronological order, with descriptions of some of the central works in the presentation.
James Ensor 1860 – 1949
L'Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles (1885) is one of Ensor's rare city scapes. Though the compositional interplay of roofs and façades is quite remarkable, what really stands out is the geometric squares of primary colours on the public hoarding at the bottom left of the painting. With these squares of primary colours, Ensor introduces the avant-garde into this painting, which is otherwise rather classical as regards colouring.
Another painting is a more typical example of Ensor's grotesque period, beginning in the late 1880s, in which, as a logical extension, the macabre and ridiculous side of human destiny appears in his work. La Mort et les Masques (1897) portrays death holding a wobbly candle, surrounded by seven masks. The theme of death is echoed in the sky, where two skeletons are in lively pursuit of a balloon. The masks, chinoiserie and shells in James Ensor's work are a direct reference to the hotchpotch of things in his parents' souvenir shop in Ostend.
Théo van Rysselberghe 1862 – 1926
Like James Ensor, Van Rysselberghe also belonged to the 'Cercle des XX', a group of artists who rejected academicism and went in search of the avant-gardes of the day. From 1883, they organised an annual exhibition of twenty outside exhibitors. The two works by Van Rysselberghe in Winter garden are a good example of his exceptional talent in the portrait genre. Les sœurs du peintre Schlobach, from 1884, is a composition with a background in many hues of grey, full of exotic references (probably due to the artist's recent stay in Morocco in the period preceding the work). With their static pose and solemn expression, the two central figures contrast starkly with the rich textures, dim light and hint of movement in the fabrics and carpet.
Another work, La Dame en blanc – Portrait de Mme Théo van Rysselberghe, from 1904, shows his affinity with the Neo-Impressionism of Seurat, although he is not totally converted to pointillism. This painting is one of a series of portraits of writers and artists with whom Van Rysselberghe had close contact. It is a portrait of his wife, who was also the publisher of the catalogues of the 'Cercle des XX' and the magazine 'l'Art Moderne'. The book in her hand refers to her close involvement with art, literature and the publishing business.
Paul Gauguin 1848 – 1903
Le Sorcier d'Hiva-Oa ou Le Marquisien à la cape rouge (1902) is one of the last works painted by Gauguin shortly before his death in 1903. The central figure has been identified as the sorcerer and also the best dancer from the island of Hiva-Oa, where the painter lived during the last two years of his life, taking refuge from the advancing westernisation of Tahiti. This person introduced Gauguin to the island's local traditions and customs. Le Sorcier d'Hiva-Oa is one of a series of portraits of 'feminine' men, with androgynous features, of whom there were many in Polynesian society. The scene taking place between the three characters has a certain mystery to it and is concentrated on the left-hand side of the painting, while the right-hand side depicts a serene natural scene.
Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
La famille Soler (1903) is a work made by Picasso on commission from his tailor, in exchange for some suits. Originally, it formed part of a triptych, along with the portraits of Monsieur and Madame Soler. This work is also known by the title of Le déjeuner sur l'herbe de la famille Soler, in reference to the work by Edouard Manet. However, one of things distinguishing it from Manet's theme is the presence of a gun, a game bag and a hare, clearly referring to a hunting party. Living in Barcelona at the dawn of his 'blue period', Picasso painted a series of portraits of friends and people from his close circle. This group portrait was painted from a photo rather than from life, which explains the rather rigid posture of the figures. The background is a uniform emerald green/blue (following some overpainted attempts at Cubism at the top left, behind Madame Soler's head), in reference to the background drapes commonly used at the time in photographic studios.
Marc Chagall 1887 - 1985
La Maison Bleue was painted in 1920 in Vitebsk in White Russia, Chagall's place of birth (in 1887). A pig is visible at the foot of the coloured steppe hut and there is a vague shadow of a cockerel on the chimney. These are relics from Chagall's childhood, which recur throughout his oeuvre. Chagall was 33 when he painted this work. He had already experienced various artistic movements, such as Cubism, which he discovered in Paris between 1910 and 1914. In 1920, Chagall finally settled in exile in France, after numerous artistic activities in Russia (including founding an academy and a museum in Vitebsk), but also after a few collisions with his Suprematist contemporaries. From then on, Vitebsk formed the visual reference point and source of inspiration for the rest of his life and work.
Oskar Kokoschka 1886 – 1980
Monte-Carlo, 1925, is part of an ensemble created in between the many travels undertaken by Kokoschka between 1924 and 1931. In this period, he chose to work in the landscape genre, portraying Monte-Carlo as a fashionable resort. The people in the lower foreground of the painting, with their carefully chosen physiognomy, show how talented the artist was as a portrait painter. The gesture of understanding between the two protagonists reveals a little of their inner lives and emotions. The work, which was already acquired by the Museum of Frankfurt in 1926, was regarded in 1937 as 'Entartet' and removed, as Kokoschka did not meet the conservative and academic standards of the day.
Wintertuin is an initiative of Laurent Jacob, director of Espace 251 Nord, and the result of a collaboration between the Bonnefantenmuseum, the MAMAC (Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain de la Ville de Liege) and the Musée de l'Art Wallon in Liege. The exhibitions were mounted in cooperation with Alexander van Grevenstein, director of the Bonnefantenmuseum. Winter garden is a project by Espace 251 Nord and the City of Liege, as part of 'Liege Culture Metropolis 2010', with the support of the Belgian Presidency of the European Council and assistance from the French-speaking Community of Belgium.
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GAUGUIN, Paul
Paris (F), 1848 - Atuona (Iles Marquises), 1903
Le sorcier d'Hiva-Oa ou Le Marquisien à la cape rouge
Huile sur toile, 92 x 73 cm
Signé et daté en b. à g. : Paul Gauguin 1902
Acquisition à la vente de la galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 1939
(provient du Städelische Museum de Francfort-sur-Main)
Inv. AM 16/163 © Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Liège. |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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ENSOR, James
Ostende (B), 1860 - 1949
La Mort et les masques
Huile sur toile, 78, 5 x 100 cm
Signé et daté en b. à d. : J. ENSOR / 97
Acquisition à la vente de la galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 1939
(provient de la Städtische Kunsthalle de Mannheim)
Inv. AM 529/1128 |
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Foto Ernst van Loon |
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James Ensor, L’Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles, 1885 |
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Théo van Rysselberghe, La Dame en blanc – Portrait de
Mme Théo van Rysselberghe, 1904 |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Oskar Kokoschka, Monte-Carlo, 1925 |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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PICASSO, Pablo
(pseudonyme de RUIZ BLASCO PICASSO Y LOPEZ), dit
Malaga (SP), 1881 - Mougins (F), 1973
La Famille Soler, 1903
Huile sur toile, 150 x 200 cm
Signé en h. à g. : Picasso
Acquisition à la vente de la galerie Fischer à Lucerne, 1939 (provient du Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne)
Inv. AM 441/249 |
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Théo van Rysselberghe, Les sœurs du peintre Schlobach, 1884 |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Ernst van Loon |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Peter Cox |
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Foto Ernst van Loon |