Louis ANQUETIN (1861-1932) "Portrait d'Emile Bernard",... Lot 415

Louis ANQUETIN (1861-1932) "Portrait d'Emile Bernard", Pastel on paper, circa 1886 / 1887, 30.5 x 27.7 cm EXHIBITION: 1888, Paris Salon des Indépendants PROVENANCE : - Fabienne Debord, France - Private collection, France BIBLIOGRAPHY : Frédéric Destremeau, "Les études de l'intérieur de chez Bruant par Louis Anquetin (1861-1932)", in La revue du Louvre, March 1995, p .64, fig 4, rep. We would like to thank Galerie Brame Lorenceau for confirming the authenticity of this work, which is included in the artist's archives. A notice of inclusion will be given to the purchaser. More than any other, this portrait illustrates the formidable complicity between two young painters, which was to be one of the driving forces behind the creation of Synthétisme. Émile Bernard, then aged 18, had just completed a journey from Normandy to the tip of the Breton peninsula. Over a period of six months, he walked 900 km and experienced a variety of adventures that impressed his former fellow students at the Académie Cormon, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Louis Anquetin. The following six months, from late 1886 to early 1887, were a time of great excitement. A new student from the studio, Vincent Van Gogh, joined the group. Anquetin undertook a painting ambitious in theme and format (145 x 157cm): "L'Intérieur de chez Bruant: le Mirliton" (private collection, Sotheby's New York sale, November 5, 2014). Le Mirliton - the name of a small musical instrument - was a new cabaret that took over from Le Chat Noir. It was frequented by Montmartre's entire artistic milieu, and the chansonnier Aristide Bruant was its star. Unlike Toulouse-Lautrec, who portrayed the same place with great vivacity (Le refrain de la chaise Louis XIII, Hiroshima Museum of Art), Anquetin slowly constructed his work with great restraint. Bernard remembers (Louis Anquetin, La Gazette des beaux-arts, February 1934): "Anquetin was pursuing a vast composition in large drawings, intended to represent the interior of a cabaret. He had taken Bruant's as a model, but had no intention of conforming to it absolutely. After the large sketches, he had his friends pose. Bernard would occupy the most important place in the future painting, in the front row. Anquetin made three preparatory studies (one in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, another in a private collection and this one). Bernard told his parents in February 1887: "[...] I pose at Anquetin's, go to Tanguy's [father Tanguy's store] and work outside. The posing sessions developed their relationship. Bernard would later say ("Notes sur l'école dite de 'Pont-Aven'", Mercure de France, December 1903): "We talk a lot about painting, we reason, concluding that art has its mathematical, voluntary, organized side". Today's pastel is the first of these studies. For subsequent studies and the final work, Anquetin retained the first impression of his model, the head carriage and the sly smile. After noticing such studies at the Salon des Indépendants in 1888, critic Edouard Dujardin wrote ("Le cloisonnisme", Revue indépendante, March 1888): "The drawings for the Bruant brewery are studies, pure research into character; it is, through the admirable strength of the line, the most perfect part of the Anquetin exhibition." André Cariou