Three exhibitions of drawings in Parisian galleries

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25/3/23 - Art market - Paris - Delacroix was obsessed by Rubens. He mentioned him many times in his diary and in his correspondence, and never tired of admiring his genius, evoking for example The Flagellation in Antwerp: "On the way out, the flagellated Jesus, the Saint Paul..., a masterpiece of genius if ever there was one. It is a little outdone by the large executioner on the left. It really takes an incredible degree of sublimity for this ridiculous figure not to spoil everything [1]" When critics compared his works to those of the Fleming - and this was a recurrent occurrence - it was to him the highest praise.
Among the sheets collected by the Dutch gallery Den Otter Fine Art, a study by Eugène Delacroix captures the impulse of haggard and terrified women trying to protect their infant from the violence of a soldier (ill. 1). The artist uses figures from Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents, more precisely, he looked at the engraving that Paulus Ponce made of it. Delacroix, as is often the case, was interested in only a few figures, which he studied with a certain freedom from the original composition.
After working for several years at Christie’s, Jonathan den Otter founded his own gallery in 2021, specialising in drawings and prints. Benjamin Peronnet, who is currently participating in the Salon du Dessin, has invited him to exhibit a selection of works in his Parisian premises on the rue de Louvois.


1. Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
The Massacre of the Innocents after Peter Paul Rubens
Graphite, brush point and brown ink - 23.2 x 32.2 cm
Den Otter Fine Arts
Photo: Den Otter Fine Art
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From the mother protecting her child to the son carrying his father: Aeneas and Anchises is a drawing by Jan Philipsz. van Bouckhorst. He was a draughtsman, engraver and also a painter on glass, although no work in this technique has survived. This sheet may be a study for a Harlem rhetorical chamber, such as "Trou moet Blijcken" ("The Truth Must Shine Through"), for which Hendrick Goltzius also designed allegorical compositions for coats of arms, in which a pelican feeds its young with its entrails and Aeneas saves Anchises from the burning city of Troy.


2. Adélaïde-Marie-Anne Castellas-Moitte (1747-1807)
Two Studies of a Little Girl (recto), 1787
Pen and brown ink - 31 x 19 cm
Den Otter Fine Art
Photo: Den Otter Fine Art
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Finally, a set of leaves by Adelaide Castellas-Moitte should attract museums looking for women artists for their collections (ill. 2). A small catalogue has been written by Corisande Evesque for this occasion. Adélaïde Castellas trained with Jean-Jacques Le Barbier before marrying the sculptor Jean-Guillaume Moitte. Once married, she abandoned painting, but continued to draw in notebooks, now dismembered, capturing scenes of daily life, members of her family and her entourage.
A forgotten artist, she is remembered today for the role she played during the French Revolution: on 7 September 1789, she led a procession of eleven women dressed in white to the National Constituent Assembly meeting in Versailles. Each of them offered her jewels to the country. On this occasion, Adélaïde Moitte gave a speech entitled "The Soul of the Romans in French Women", which cites an episode from Antiquity as a model. The Carnavalet Museum preserves an engraving of this episode, and Léon Gauffier was also inspired by it to paint The Generosity of Roman Women. Moitte also helped young women in need to learn to read and count.


3. Olof Thunman (1879-1944)
Knivsta, 1936
Indian ink, pen and grey ink, grey wash - 40.5 x 50 cm
Nathalie Peronnet
Photo : Nathalie Peronnet
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Benjamin and Nathalie Peronnet in an adjacent room selected a set of Swedish drawings around 1900. Once married to Gustaf Fjaestad in 1898, Maja Fjaestad too despaired that she no longer had time to paint or draw, consumed by her role as mother and wife. "If you would consider me a friend and companion rather than a wife and property. If you could put yourself in my place as a ’human being’", she wrote to her husband in 1900. As for Olga Nyblom, there was something masculine about her style and manner. She depicts landscapes with a naturalistic approach, and combines charcoal and gouache on specially prepared paper.


4. Axel Törneman (1880-1925)
Wooded Landscape by a Lake
Pen and black ink, watercolour and gouache - 13 x 12 cm
Nathalie Peronnet
Photo: Nathalie Peronnet
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There is a great contrast between her work and the meticulous and lunar landscapes of Olof Thunman hanging next to it; done in grey ink, they give the impression of landscapes frozen under the ashes (ill. 3). The artist had a real passion for trees.
A number of Axel Törneman’s sheets show the diversity of his production. He first studied at the Värmland School of Art in Gothenburg, then went to Germany, went to Paris where he studied at the Julian Academy between 1902 and 1904, and then stayed in Brittany and Normandy. Back in Sweden in 1906, he received public commissions for frescoes in Oslo. One can see his hand, here a small landscape done in pen, watercolour, gouache with a pointillist touch (ill. 4), there a large ink drawing showing a smoking gentleman which reminds us that he was also an illustrator.


Mathieu Néouze
Photo : Mathieu Néouze
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Illustrating artists between 1880 and 1940 is the theme of Mathieu Néouze’s exhibition. Steinlen is there, of course, who knew how to capture the long silhouette of Yvette Guilbert (ill. 5) so well. A famous singer and actress in black gloves, she did not hesitate to play up her physique when she went on stage, emphasising her too pronounced nose and too thin mouth, before singing saucy songs, La Soûlarde and La Pierreuse, "ti-re-li-pi-ti-pon". And yet, when she asked Toulouse-Lautrec to design the poster for her shows, the result did not please her, and she preferred Steinlen, who was more flattering. The drawing on display is reproduced in first page of the March 1891 issue of Mirliton. Steinlen used the composition again, giving it a less stooped attitude, in a poster announcing Yvette Guilbert every evening at the Ambassadeurs. Also by Steinlen is a rare incised, painted and gilded leather, which is a bookbinding plate.


6. Armand Rassenfosse (1862-1934)
L’Inconnue, 1894
Charcoal and pastel - 49.5 x 31 cm
Mathieu Néouze
Photo: Mathieu Néouze
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L’Inconnue has more sensual curves than Yvette (ill. 6). Her imposing nudity is emphasised by half-undressed clothes and a provocative look. This pastel by Armand Rassenfosse is linked to the frontispiece of a collection, La Clef de Saint-Pierre, ballet by Hugues Rebell, published in 1897.
Hugues Rebell was first considered an erotic author, known for Les Nuits chaudes du Cap Français (1902). He planned to marry the daughter of Félicien Rops, but the engagement was broken off. The event is recalled in a letter that Rops wrote to Rassenfosse: "Thus I am rid of all possible Rebells and others, of the same kind [2].". This did not prevent his friend from illustrating his works.

Born in Liège, Armand Rassenfosse began in 1882 by providing drawings for the satirical newspaper Le Frondeur, which he signed under the pseudonym of Zig. Then, from 1887, he designed posters for the printer Auguste Bénard. He went to Paris in 1888 to meet Félicien Rops, with whom he became friends. Together they experimented with different engraving techniques, until they developed a soft varnish which they called "ropsenfosse". In 1896, Rassenfosse participated for the first time in the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels.
He is best known today for the illustrations of Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal, which he delivered in 1899 for the Cent Bibliophiles. In 1900, the architect Paul Jaspar built a house for him in Rue Saint-Gilles in Liège, which the artist’s granddaughter bequeathed to the King Baudouin Foundation and which is currently being restored.

<Practical information:
Den Otter Fine Art, exhibition of drawings and prints, from 21 to 27 March 2023, at Benjamin Peronnet, 10 rue de Louvois, 75002 Paris. Open from 10 h to 17 h.

Galerie Peronnet, "Swedish drawings around 1900", from 22 to 27 March 2023. 10 rue de Louvois, 75002 Paris. Open from 10 h to 17 h.

Mathieu Néouze, "Artistes illustrateurs, 1880-1940", 16 rue de la Grange Batelière, 75009 Paris.

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