Interesting Art Stories: 60. Bal du moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, ACJ Art Academy

How are you?

Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 60th story is “Bal du moulin de la Galette” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

“Bal du moulin de la Galette” is an 1876 painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, one of the most famous Impressionist works. 

Self-portrait, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1910)

Measuring 131 × 175 cm, this painting is currently housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon at the Moulin de la Galette in the district of Montmartre in Paris. In the late 19th century, working class Parisians would dress up and spend time there dancing, drinking and eating galettes until the evening.

Moulin de la Galette (1885)

Like other paintings of Renoir's early maturity, the painting is a typical expression of real life of the Impressionists, and the rich form, fluid brushstrokes and colorful sunlight shining through the trees are impressive.

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

From 1879 to 1894, the painting was in the collection of the French painter Gustave Caillebotte, and when he died it became the property of the French Republic in lieu of an inheritance tax. Then, the painting was in the collection of the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris from 1896 to 1929, of the Musée du Louvre from 1929, and then of the Musée d'Orsay from 1986.

Self-portrait, Gustave Caillebotte (c.1892)

Renoir painted a smaller version (78 × 114 cm) with the same title, which is now believed to be in a private collection in Switzerland. The two paintings are almost identical except for their size, but the smaller version was painted in a more fluid form than the version at the Musée d'Orsay. The painting was catalogued in the list of exhibited works at the 3rd Impressionist exhibition of 1877, indicating that it was first exhibited in this exhibition, but it is not known which version was exhibited there because there was no indication for the size of the painting and information to identify it.

Smaller version of Bal du moulin de la Galette

In May 1876, Renoir conceived a painting that people are dancing at the Moulin de la Galette, and its process is described in detail in the memoir “Renoir et ses amis,” written by his friend Georges Rivière. 

Georges Rivière, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(1877)

For this painting, Renoir used an abandoned cottage in the rue Cortot, with a garden that Rivière described as "a beautiful abandoned park" as his studio. At this time, several of Renoir's major works were painted in this garden, including “La balançoire (The Swing)” and the gardens and its buildings have been preserved as the Musée de Montmartre.

La balançoire (The Swing), Pierre-Auguste
Renoir (1876)

When Renoir created this painting, he encouraged his models to wear fashionable hats of the time, but Jeanne Samary, his favorite 16-year-old model, refused to accept his suggestion. Standing in this painting, she was the principal model for Renoir’s paintings that also appears in "La balançoire", and the girl in a blue and pink striped dress sitting next to her is her sister, Estelle. These two girls came to the Moulin every Sunday with their two younger sisters, mother and father. 

Portrait of Jeanne Samary, Pierre-Auguste
Renoir (1878)

Beside her is a group consisting of the painter Pierre-Franc Lamy and Norbert Goeneutte, who also appears in “La balançoire,” as well as Rivière himself. Don Pedro Vidal de Solares y Cardenas, a Cuban painter in striped trousers behind her, is dancing with the model called Margot (Marguerite Legrand). 

Models of Bal du moulin de la Galette: 1. Jeanne Samary, 
2. Estelle Samary, 3. Pierre-Franc Lamy, 4. Norbert
Goeneutte, 5. Georges Rivière, 6. Marguerite Legrand, 
7. Don Pedro Vidal de Solares y Cardenas

The exuberant Margot is dancing with Solares who is too reserved, trying to release his tension while dancing. Unfortunately, however, she died of typhoid just two years later, and Renoir cared for her until the end, paying both for her treatment and her funeral. 

Portrait of Margot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(1877)

Rivière recalled that when this painting was being painted on the spot, the constant winds threatened to blow the canvas away, making it difficult to paint.

Thank you.

Amazon Author Page

Lecture Program List

YouTube

Korean Blog

Naver TV

The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 23. Beatrice Hastings (1914)

How are you?

Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 23rd work to introduce for this week is “Beatrice Hastings (1914)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 55 x 46 cm.

In this work, Modigliani left the signature "modigliani" in top left, and it is currently possessed by the "High Museum of Art" in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

“Beatrice Hastings” was the pen name of “Emily Alice Haigh”, who was a British writer, poet, and literary critic.

She was born on January 27, 1879 in Hackney, London, England, and died on October 30, 1943, in Worthing, West Sussex, England.

Much of her work has been published under various pseudonyms in the British weekly magazine “The New Age”, and until the outbreak of World War I, she lived with the editor, “A. R. Orage”.

Bisexual, she was a friend and lover of a novelist “Katherine Mansfield”, who published her work in “The New Age” magazine, and also a lover of “Wyndham Lewis”.

Beatrice Hastings, the columnist of “The New Age”, arrived in Paris in April 1914 as a correspondent for Paris and lived in Montparnasse, close to the studios of sculptors “Brancusi” and “Lipchitz”, until she moved to Montmartre the following autumn.

In Paris, she became a figure in bohemian circles due to her friendship with “Max Jacob” and a subject of controversy with her unusual attire and behavior.

According to her memoirs, Beatrice met Modigliani at “Chez Rosalie”, a restaurant kept by the Italian “Rosalie Tobia”.

The two met and had a rough and tumultuous affair like a storm for two years.

She shared her apartment in Montparnasse with Modigliani and modeled for him.

Modigliani, who dreamed of becoming a sculptor, gave up sculpture and dedicated to painting as he met Beatrice, and he left many important works, including 14 paintings and many drawings of her.

After two years of affair, Beatrice broke up with Modigliani, and returned to London.

A natural prodigy, she thought she was excluded from the literary world at the end of her life, and suffered from depression because she was despaired by the people who didn't recognize her talents.

In 1943, suffering from cancer, Beatrice committed suicide with gas.

This work is one of the earliest works of Beatrice by Modigliani and it looks very simple compared to Modigliani’s later works of her.

It is also one of the works that gives a unique feeling by using the technique of “pointillism” that is rare in Modigliani's paintings.

In addition, the colors show a more pronounced “contrast” due to the effect of light shining on Beatrice.

It seems as if the contrast of the colors suggests very different personalities of Modigliani and Beatrice.

Such distinct contrast of the colors also seems to foresee their rough and hard affair in the future due to the very different personality of the two.

Like other works of Modigliani, he treated the background simply and the background color similar to that of the model's hat and attire, so that the viewers’ eyes are focused on the model's face.

Thank you.

Korean Blog

The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 18. The Portrait of Joseph Levi (1910)

How are you?

Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 18th work to introduce for this week is “The Portrait of Joseph Levi (1910)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 53.7 x 48.7 cm, possessed by Levi's family.

Joseph Levi was a painter and painting-restorer who lived in Montmartre in the early 20th century.

Levi, a friend of Modigliani, often lent money to Modigliani, and he paid back the borrowed money with his drawings and paintings

This work, using various colors, is one of the portraits that have feeling of the Classical Art.

It is also an evidence that Modigliani experimented with the Fauvism, which he first encountered the works of Henri Matisse and Andre Derain.

Levi was a recognized artist with his confidence based on his experience, and this work demonstrates his confidence and vigorous character very well.

His appearance is somewhat authoritative, majestic, and it is estimated that Levi is a stubborn person from his tightly closed mouth.

Three years later, Modigliani drew a portrait of Levi's son, Gaston, and it was perhaps a token of friendship or the gratitude for lending money.

The featuring point of this work is that the shape of the model's face and body is quite different from his other works, and as a result the model in this work looks more realistic than others.

In addition, unlike Modigliani's general style for the selection of the background colors in order to concentrate on the model, he also concerned with the background than other works using a mixture of various colors with a striped style.

This is a unique feature of this work.

This is perhaps the result of experimenting with the forms of Fauvism after encountering the intense and primary colors of the Fauvism as commented earlier.

In addition, the way of expressing the model with thicker and stronger brush strokes than other works also seems to be influenced by the Fauvism, and the result expresses the stubborn character of Levi as well.

One more thing to comment is that the contours of the eyes, nose, mouth and ears of the model are slightly blurred compared to Modigliani’s previous works.

It seems to be another evidence of Fauvism, pursuing a simplification of the object, which is one of the features of the Fauvism.

Thank you.