Jean-François RAFFAELLI (Paris, 1850-1924) - Lot 29

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Lot n° 29
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Estimation :
8000 - 12000 EUR
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Result : 8 100EUR
Jean-François RAFFAELLI (Paris, 1850-1924) - Lot 29
Jean-François RAFFAELLI (Paris, 1850-1924) Fishermen in the moonlight Oil on canvas Signed and dated 1897 lower left 93,5 x 134,5 cm Stamped on the back: P. Aprin (painters' supplies house) Natural wood frame with gilded bevelled interior border Provenance : - lot no. 29 of the Damien Libert sale, Drouot-Richelieu, December 16, 2015 (erroneously dated 1898). - private collection Condition report: restorations and repaints. Small damages (paint gaps) towards the edges of the canvas as well as cracks. Frame flush. In the first part of his life as a painter, Raffaelli appreciated naturalistic subjects and linked his pictorial choices to a form of personal sadness and despair. He liked to represent the little people of the Parisian suburbs where he lived, in Asnières: ragpickers, beggars, poor peasants, old bakers, vagabonds, farms and hovels... Despite his stylistic differences, Raffaelli participated in the Impressionist group's exhibitions in 1881 and 1882. However, some artists, including Claude Monet, soon asked that he be removed from the group, because his too tortured subjects did not correspond, according to them, to their movement. This rupture did not prevent him from pursuing a successful career, as evidenced by an honorable mention at the 1885 Salon des Artistes Français and a gold medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle (a medal that earned him the rank of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur). In 1895, Raffaelli travels in Europe and the United States. He was exhibited by Paul Durand-Ruel in New York, which ensured him a lasting promotion and a great economic success. Having become middle-class, he settled in a Parisian mansion, rue de Courcelles. There, he had a great deal of fun and gave sumptuous meals, which were attended by, among others, Emile Zola, Auguste Rodin and Georges Clémenceau. This new social life encouraged him to abandon the miserable themes of his early work and to favor lighter subjects: racetracks, elegant women on the boulevards, the banks of the Seine, and other scenes of Parisian life... until the drama of the Bazar de la Charité. In May 1897, one hundred and twenty-five people died in the fire of the department store, among whom a majority of women. Raffaelli was affected because his wife and daughter were present at the time of the tragedy and narrowly escaped death. Without doubt our painting is part of this agitated and tragic period where his melancholy was revived. The fishing scene, in a somewhat dark lunar chiaroscuro, expresses the spleen that gripped the painter that year. It is also a rare theme in Raffaelli's painted work. We know of only one other painting of the same subject: Partant pour la pêche, hiver, oil on canvas, 51 x 61 cm, signed lower left, lot n° 141, Sotheby's New York sale on 12/02/1997. Virginie JOURNIAC, Expert approved by the CECOA, the FNEPSA and the CEDEA
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