15/3/23 - Acquisition - Issy-les-Moulineaux - Musée français de la carte à jouer - In the wake of the exhibition devoted to Victor Prouvé a few months ago (see article), the Musée français de la carte à jouer is adding a new sheet to its collection of works by the artist (ill. 1). Acquired from the Galerie Charvet in Paris, this beautiful drawing in charcoal, red chalk and chalk is a study for the large decoration of the staircase of the town hall in Issy-les-Moulineaux (ill. 2) for which the museum already kept two large preparatory sheets, Circle Dance in pastel and charcoal and Young girl lying down in pencil and charcoal. The latter were presented at the exhibition, along with numerous other studies documenting the genesis of this great decoration, a major work of heritage in Issy-les-Moulineaux recently brilliantly restored.
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- 1. Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)
Woman Leaning, preparatory study for The Life
Charcoal, red chalk and white chalk - 64 x 81 cm
Issy-les-Moulineaux, Musée français de la carte à jouer
Photo: Galerie Charvet - See the image in its page
At the end of 1895, the new Issy-les-Moulineaux town hall was being completed under the direction of the architect Louis Bonnier, in a former town house attributed to Etienne-Louis Boullée. The municipality, through the intermediary of Ralph Brown, inspector of Fine Arts for the City of Paris, entrusted the decoration of the stairwell to Victor Prouvé, who had just failed in the competition to decorate the dining room of the Hôtel de Ville de Paris. In a little over two years, the artist created a monumental allegorical frieze measuring nearly twelve by three metres. Entitled The Life, the immense oil on canvas exalts family life, a fundamental republican value. The iconographic programme develops from right to left, according to the direction of the ascent of the steps. Against a local landscapist background, in which the Seine and the Ile Saint-Germain can be seen, various scenes at different ages of life follow one another, from the meeting of a young couple to the edifying lesson of a patriarch, passing through various evocations of motherhood or the building of a house.
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- 2. Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)
The frieze of La Vie, decoration of the staircase of the town hall of Issy-les-Moulineaux
Photo: City of Issy-les-Moulineaux - See the image in its page
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- 3. Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)
The frieze of La Vie, decoration of the staircase of the town hall of Issy-les-Moulineaux (detail)
Photo: City of Issy-les-Moulineaux - See the image in its page
Featuring a young woman leaning, the sheet recently acquired by the Musée français de la carte à jouer, dedicated by the artist to Mr Ralph Brown, prepares with great precision a motif in the centre of the frieze, that of the woman leaning against a tree trunk listening attentively to the reading aloud of a young woman sitting at her feet (ill. 3). As Charlotte Guinois, curator at the museum, points out, a second, smaller study of the same female figure is known and is kept in the Musée de l’École de Nancy. In addition, several other preparatory studies for the frieze of The Life are to be found in French public collections, ranging from rough sketches to large, highly accomplished pastel or charcoal sheets, virtuoso works of art in their own right. Let us mention here The Family from the Musée d’Orsay, the Bust of a woman holding her child from the Musée de l’École de Nancy, The Betrothed from the Musée du Château de Lunéville or the modello from the Petit Palais.
