Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas

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Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas
Edgar Degas , around 1871–1872
54.5 × 39.5 cm
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay , Paris

Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas is the title of a painting by Edgar Degas . It is painted in oil on canvas and is 54.5 cm high and 39.5 cm wide. The double portrait, created around 1871–1872, shows the tenor Lorenzo Pagans , who comes from Catalonia , giving a song and guitar performance. To the side behind him sits Auguste de Gas, the painter's father, as a listener. The painting is one of a series of portraits of musicians that Degas painted from the late 1860s. It is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris .

Image description

The painting by Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas is a double portrait in an interior. The central figure in the center of the picture is the Spanish singer Lorenzo Pagans, facing the viewer, while Auguste de Gas, Edgar Degas' father, has taken his place on the right behind him. Both men each wear a dark suit, dark shoes and a white shirt. Pagans also has a dark tie and a boutonnière on the left lapel . He is sitting in the posture of a guitarist with crossed legs on a simple wooden chair. Pagans supported the instrument on his thighs, placed his right hand on the body to play the strings, and gripped the guitar neck with his left hand. The light wood of the guitar and mother-of-pearl-like inlays on the sound hole and the edge of the body stand out in contrast to Pagan's dark suit. A dark green ribbon knotted on the guitar head, on the other hand, is hardly noticeable. The musician has tilted his head slightly to the right edge of the picture and seems to be fixing his dark eyes on a point to the right outside the picture. The mouth is half open, giving the impression that Pagans is singing a song. Pagan's face has a healthy fair complexion. A striking feature is a broad, dark mustache, the ends of which are twisted into tips. The dark, slightly curly hair on the head is cut into a short hairstyle that leaves the ears free.

In contrast to the young singer Pagans, Auguste de Gas, sitting diagonally behind him, is a man marked by age. His posture is characterized by his upper body leaning forward, his head pointing downwards and his hands clasped in front of his knees. The face is shown in half profile. The ends of a gray mustache point downwards, and a high forehead highlights the thinning hair. Edgar Degas portrays his father as an attentive listener who, lost in thought, looks down. His role takes a back seat to that of the singer Pagans, who clearly dominates this double portrait.

While Edgar Degas gave a detailed description of the faces, the hands and the guitar, other areas of the picture were executed in a fleeting style of painting. The room in which the two portrayed are located can only be seen in part. The wooden floor is sketched with horizontal brushstrokes in changing colors of brown and gray. The wooden chair from Pagans stands on it, with its chair legs and cross braces. Father de Gas may be sitting on a piano bench or a stool without such a piece of furniture being visible in the picture, as this area is covered by Pagans. Behind the two people there is a dark grand piano , the keyboard of which extends to the right of Auguste de Gas to the edge of the picture. Behind Father de Gas on a framed music stand aufgeschlagenes the wing Notenheft the head of the sitter. Further music is on the left edge of the picture on the closed grand piano cover. Above the musical instrument a reddish brown painted wall can be seen, on which two framed pictures hang, which are cut off from the upper edge of the painting. The two images are only vaguely executed and do not reveal the respective motif. The light falls from an unknown source onto the scenery, creating highlights on the guitar and on the forehead, cheeks and hands of the two sitters.

The bodies of Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas are not aligned with one another, but both have turned towards the space. There, in the area outside the right edge of the picture, other people can be assumed. It remains to be seen whether Pagans was looking at other people. His gaze can also be read as a sign of concentration on his presentation. Even Auguste de Gas doesn't necessarily have to look at something despite his eyes open. His facial expression rather emphasizes the intense listening. In this painting, Edgar Degas not only visualized the contrast between young and old man, but also represented the subject of music with the singing singer and guitarist as well as his audience. The author Melissa MacQuillan notes, "... seldom has the relationship between the musical interpreter and his listener been so clearly illustrated."

Variations on the theme

Around the same time as the portrait of Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas , Degas created a variant of the motif entitled Degas' Father Listens to Lorenzo Pagans ( Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ). Here Lorenzo Pagans is shown in profile and moved to the left edge of the picture. It is clearly located in the shadow area of ​​the painting and thus plays a subordinate role. The main character in this picture is Auguste de Gas, whose head appears in the brighter light and who has otherwise assumed the same position as in the double portrait of Lorenzo Pagan and Auguste de Gas . These two pictures are among the few portraits that Edgar Degas created of his father. After the death of Auguste de Gas in 1874, his son took up the subject again. In a double portrait of Pagan and Degas' father (private collection) painted in 1882 , he shows Pagans singing with a music book in his hand. Here Degas' father sits as a marginal figure in the background. There is also a pastel sketch for this picture (private collection). In 1882, a few months before Lorenzo Pagans' death, he painted Portrait Lorenzo Pagans (Man with Cigar) ( National Gallery in Prague ), in which the musician was portrayed as a half-portrait in a private pose and without any reference to his musical existence .

  • Edgar Degas:
    Degas' father listens to Lorenzo Pagans , around 1869–1872

  • Edgar Degas:
    Pagans and Degas' Father , 1882

  • Edgar Degas:
    Pagans and Degas' Father (pastel sketch), 1882

  • Edgar Degas:
    Portrait of Lorenzo Pagan (Man with Cigar) , 1882

Background to the creation of the painting

The Auguste de Gas depicted in the painting was the father of the painter Edgar Degas and known as a music lover. The scenery in the picture by Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas is located in the music room of his apartment at 4 rue de Mondovi in ​​the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Family members and friends met here every Monday evening to exchange ideas, which was occasionally enriched by musical performances. Various interpreters played on the Érard piano , such as Auguste de Gas' daughter Marguerite, his friend Blanche Camus and the pianist Suzanne Manet , who came to visit with her husband, the painter Édouard Manet . The singer and pianist Marie Dihau also performed in Auguste de Gas's salon and her brother, the bassoon player Désiré Dihau , came from the Paris Opera . In the late 1860s, his son Edgar Degas discovered opera as a motif for his paintings and repeatedly portrayed musicians alongside the ballet dancers. With Das Orchester der Oper (Musée d'Orsay) he presented a group picture with the bassoon player Désiré Dihau as the central figure. Degas also portrayed various musicians in a domestic setting. These include the portraits of the violoncellist Pilet (Musée d'Orsay), Madame Camus at the piano ( Foundation EG Bührle Collection , Zurich) and Marie Dihau at the piano (Musée d'Orsay). All these musicians are shown like Lorenzo Pagans in a double portrait with father de Gas with their musical instruments. This also applies to the double portrait of two unknown people in the painting Violinist with Young Woman ( Detroit Institute of Arts ) from around 1871 . This picture shows certain similarities to the painting by Lorenzo Pagan and Auguste de Gas . In both pictures, music in the private salon is the theme and not the performance in the concert hall. Both pictures are also only sparsely furnished and the wall with the trimmed picture frames in the double portrait of Lorenzo Pagan and Auguste de Gas finds its equivalent in the chimney cut from the right edge in the painting Violinist with Young Woman . Above all, there are parallels in the execution: Degas finely worked out the heads of the people in both pictures, while large parts of the composition show a rather fleeting brushstroke.

  • Edgar Degas:
    The Opera Orchestra , around 1870

  • Edgar Degas:
    The Cellist Pilet ,
    1868–1869

  • Edgar Degas:
    Madame Camus at the piano , 1869

  • Edgar Degas:
    Madame Dihau at the piano , 1869–1872

  • Edgar Degas:
    Violinist and Young Woman , around 1871

At the end of the 1860s, Edgar Degas had received permission from the Paris Opera to sketch the ballet dancers and orchestra musicians backstage and during rehearsals. At least since then he had known Lorenzo Pagans, who had appeared in Paris as a celebrated tenor for several years and also gave recitals in private salons. Edgar Degas could hear Pagans not only in his father's house, but also with Manet's friends, where the singer was also a guest. Édouard Manet also created a portrait of the singer in 1879 with the small-format portrait of Monsieur Pagans (private collection). It is possible that Manet's painting The Spanish Singer ( Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York) from 1860 was a model for Degas when depicting Lorenzo Pagans in a double portrait with his father. The musician portrayed by Manet is also shown singing and playing the guitar, but is shown in a folk style.

  • Édouard Manet:
    The Spanish Singer ,
    1860

  • Édouard Manet:
    Portrait of Monsieur Pagans , 1879

From the French point of view, the guitar - along with castanets and tambourine - was a typical Spanish musical instrument. A Spanish fashion that could be observed in France since the middle of the 19th century was triggered not least by the Empress Eugénie , who came from Spain . Accordingly, Spanish dancers and musicians performed very successfully on the Parisian stages, some of whom delighted with their folkloric performances, others shone in the classical repertoire. While in pictures of the 18th century, for example by Antoine Watteau or Nicolas Lancret , the guitar can be seen enjoying the pleasure of the common people, its reputation changes in the 19th century to a noble instrument. Pagans was known for singing Spanish songs, one of which he may perform in the painting Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas , while accompanying himself on guitar. He also played works from the classical repertoire in private salons, including pieces by Jean-Philippe Rameau , as the Goncourt brothers remembered.

Provenance

The painting by Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas was in his possession until Edgar Degas' death in 1917. He valued the picture very much and always had it hanging over the bed in his bedroom, where few friends saw it. The painting came into the possession of the artist's brother, René de Gas, through inheritance. After his death, his daughter Odette Nepveu-de Gas inherited the picture. In 1933, through the mediation of the art critic Marcel Guérin , the picture came to the Musée du Louvre as a gift from the Société des Amis du Louvre and with the help of the patron David David-Weill . From 1947 the picture was shown in the Jeu de Paume in Paris and since 1986 it has belonged to the collection of the Musée d'Orsay.

literature

  • Felix Baumann , Marianne Karabelnik (eds.), Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas, the portraits . Exhibition catalog Kunsthaus Zürich December 2, 1994 - March 5, 1995, and Kunsthalle Tübingen March 18 - June 18, 1995, Kunsthaus, Zurich / Merrell Holberton, London 1994, ISBN 1-85894-016-8 / ISBN 1-85894-017 -6 .
  • Paul-André Lemoisne : Degas et son oeuvre . P. Brame et CM de Hauke, Paris 1946–1949.
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs: Drawings by Degas . City Art Museum of Saint Louis, Saint Louis 1966.
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas . Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York, NY 1988, ISBN 0-87099-519-7 .
  • Anna Janistinová: L'art français des 19e et 20e siècles. Národní Galerie v Praze, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7118-2756-9 .
  • Peter Pakesch, Verena Formanek: Glances at Carmen, Goya. Courbet. Manet. Nadar. Picasso , on the occasion of the exhibition Views of Carmen. Goya. Courbet. Manet. Nadar. Picasso , June 25 to September 4, 2005, Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz . König, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-88375-960-0 .
  • Melissa MacQuillan: Portrait Painting of the French Impressionists . Rosenheimer Verlagshaus, Rosenheim 1986, ISBN 3-475-52508-9 .
  • Gary Tinterow , Geneviève Lacambre: Manet / Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting . Exhibition catalog, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 2003, ISBN 1-58839-038-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The German title is taken from the exhibition catalog Peter Pakesch, Verena Formanek: Blick auf Carmen , p. 260. The Musée d'Orsay also titled the painting with Lorenzo Pagans et Auguste de Gas accordingly , see web links. In the catalog raisonné of 1946, however, the picture is referred to as Pagans chantant et le père de Degas (The singer Pagans and the father of Degas) , see Paul-Andé Lemoisne: Degas et son oeuvre , vol. II, p. 122. The different title Degas' father listens to Lorenzo Degas was related in Melissa MacQuillan: Portrait Painting of the French Impressionists , p. 68.
  2. ^ In the catalog raisonné from 1946 the picture is dated to around 1869 . See Paul-Andé Lemoisne: Degas et son oeuvre , Vol. II, p. 122. Newer publications consistently indicate around 1871–1872 . See, for example, Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas , p. 169.
  3. ↑ The name Degas was borne by the Italian branch of the family, including Edgar Degas' grandfather. Auguste's father switched to De Gas . This spelling, or the form de gas , was adopted by the French and American family members. Edgar Degas initially exhibited his pictures as Edgar de Gas and only switched to Degas in 1874 . See Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas , p. 21.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas , p. 170.
  5. ↑ a b c Peter Pakesch, Verena Formanek: Views of Carmen , p. 260.
  6. ↑ For the art historian Henri Loyette, the painting Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas is less a double portrait than a portrait of Pagans, see Gary Tinterow, Geneviève Lacambre: Manet / Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting , p. 475.
  7. ↑ a b c d Gary Tinterow, Geneviève Lacambre: Manet / Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting , p. 475.
  8. ↑ Melissa MacQuillan: Portrait Painting of the French Impressionists , p. 68.
  9. ^ Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas , p. 171.
  10. ↑ Information on the painting in Anna Janistinová: L'art français des 19e et 20e siècles , p. 42.
  11. ↑ For the various portraits by Lorenzo Pagans see Paul-Andé Lemoisne: Degas et son oeuvre . There are some deviations in the dating of later publications. The pastel sketch of Pagan and Degas' father is dated to 1882, see Jean Sutherland Boggs: Drawings by Degas , p. 168.
  12. ↑ a b Felix Baumann (ed.), Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas, die Portraits , p. 211.
  13. ↑ Melissa MacQuillan: Portrait Painting of the French Impressionists , p. 68.
  14. ↑ See Gary Tinterow, Geneviève Lacambre: Manet / Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting , p. 475.
  15. ^ Felix Baumann, Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas, die Portraits , p. 26.
  16. ↑ Degas' friend Paul Poujaud reports on the picture in the bedroom, see Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas , p. 170.
  17. ↑ For the provenance see Paul-Andé Lemoisne: Degas et son oeuvre , Vol. II, p. 122 and the additional information on the website of the Musée d'Orsay.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 14, 2017 in this version .