Pierre Carrier-Belleuse

Danseuse By Pierre Carrier-Belleuse

Circa 1898

James Tissot was among the most successful and critically acclaimed artists of the Victorian era. Although the artist is celebrated for his elegant scenes of fashionable life in Paris and London, this work is a fascinating rarity within his oeuvre. In this monumental pastel, Tissot depicts a prehistoric woman draped in a tiger skin, presented with a striking pose and heroic air. His delicate portraiture, combined with his fascination with conveying texture, demonstrates why he was one of the most revered artists of his generation, and La femme préhistorique illustrates the remarkable technique for which he was renowned. This work was completed in preparation for a series of works exploring the Old Testament undertaken by Tissot from 1899-1902 that remained unfinished at the time of his death. A portion of this series focused on illustrations of Adam and Eve, and among these sketches were images of a nude Eve partially draped in animal furs. Towards the end of his life, following his conversion to Catholicism, biblical subjects became important to the artist. A few years before this work was completed, Tissot embarked upon a highly ambitious group of nearly 300 watercolors illustrating the New Testament, presenting the illustrated epic in its entirety at the Paris Salon of 1894. Both of these series were a critical artistic departure for the artist, stemming from a desire to create works separated from his typical images of modern society. This pastel imagines Eve as the prototype of womanhood in the guise of a prehistoric woman. Tissot rarely painted the nude, and his skill as a draftsman highlights the figure's natural beauty, contrasting it with the stark landscape surrounding her. Although a study, this monumental work is incredibly well-finished and highly engaging, with the statuesque model commanding the majority of the canvas. Her pose is strong and theatrical, and she addresses the viewer with a direct, confident gaze. The imagined historical subject of this drawing is grounded by Tissot’s exceptional attention to detail. A master of conjuring an array of textures, Tissot showcased this ability in this work by juxtaposing many types of fabrics and natural elements within one composition. The tiger skin with which the woman partially covers herself was a favorite studio prop of Tissot’s, appearing in many of his most influential works from the period, including several paintings of his partner and favorite model Kathleen Newton. It, in particular, showcases the artist’s understanding of texture, yet it also serves as an exotic element that elevates the sensuality of the scene when placed against the woman’s bare skin. Born in 1836 in the port town of Nantes, Tissot traveled to Paris at the age of 20 in order to join the studios of Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe. During this period, he became close with James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, and the impact of these friendships is reflected in his portraits of modern life. Having enjoyed considerable success in Paris during the 1860s, Tissot fought in the Siege of Paris, and after the fall of the Commune in 1871, he went to London, where he stayed for the next ten years. He was met with incredible success there, and he also met the love of his life, Kathleen Newton, a divorcée, with whom he lived from about 1876 until her death in 1882. Today he is regarded among the great masters of Belle Époque painting, and his works can be found in important collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Musée d’Orsay, the Tate Gallery and many others. This pastel remained in Tissot's private collection until his death in 1902 and is referenced in the posthumous 1902-3 valuation of Tissot's home at 64 avenue du Bois...

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer 1865-1953 French Le fondeur de bronze Signed "Levy Dhurmer" (lower right) Pastel on paper French painter Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer was one of the leading artists of...

Marc Chagall 1887-1985 Russian Musiciens sur fond multicolore (Musicians on a multicolored background) Signed 'Chag' (on the sleeve of the right figure); stamped with the signature 'Marc Chagall' (lower right) Tempera, gouache, colored ink and India ink and pastel on paper “The fact that I made use of cows, milkmaids, roosters and provincial Russian architecture as my source forms is because they are part of the environment from which I spring and which undoubtedly left the deepest impression on my visual memory of the experiences I have." - Marc Chagall Marc Chagall’s 1981...

This intimate work by Camille Pissarro represents a period of significance for the Impressionist master. The early 1880s was a time of great experimentation for the artist, after he spent much of the preceding decade devoted to landscape painting. Shifting focus, he embarked on a series of works in a range of media dedicated to the human figure - particularly peasant women. In watercolor, gouache, pastel, and print, Pissarro captured the rural female and the minute moments of domestic life. Depicting a peasant woman tying her scarf, Paysanne Nouant son Foulard displays the harmony of color and composition that typifies his work of the 1880s. Composed of a symphony of color and strokes of paint, the work exemplifies the plein air technique of Pissarro's best Impressionist canvases. A true master of his art, no other artist successfully chronicled rural peasant life quite like Pissarro. Counted among the most respected artists of the 19th century and widely considered the father of Impressionism, Pissarro’s works experienced a surge in interest in the early 2000s. This is reflected in Pissarro’s new auction record of over $32.1 million, set at a 2014 Sotheby’s auction in London, which far surpassed his previous record of $14.6 million. Born in St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies, Pissarro was sent to school in Paris at the age of 11, where he first displayed a talent for drawing. In 1855, having convinced his parents of his determination to pursue a career as an artist rather than work in the family shipping business, he returned to Paris where he studied at the Académie Suisse alongside Claude Monet. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Pissarro moved to England. With Monet, he painted a series of landscapes around South-East London and studied English landscape painters in the museums. When he returned home to Louveciennes a year later, Camille discovered that all but 40 of the 1500 paintings he had left there - almost 20 years of work - had been vandalized. In 1872, Camille settled in Pontoise where he remained for the next 10 years, gathering a close circle of friends around him. Gauguin was among the many artists to visit him there and Cézanne, who lived nearby, came for long periods to work and learn. In 1874, Pissarro participated in the first Impressionist exhibition...

Attributed to Frank Weston Benson American 1862-1951 Portrait of a Young Woman Watercolor on paper Signed “F.W. Benson 1912” (lower right) This watercolor painting, entitled Port...

Signed, dated and numbered “Picasso / 3.2.67 / II” (upper right) Crayon on paper Hailed among the fathers of modern art, Pablo Picasso possessed a seemingly e...

Jules Schyl (Sweden, 1893-1977) Title: Ballet Dancers A Ballet Dancer painting is a rare find for an artist mostly known for his oeuvre with Cubism and Expressionist paintings. The current painting has many similarities with Degas sketches...

A whimsical pastel featuring a Mother with her Child on her lap that just pulled a goldfish from it's bowl. A charming large work that is exquisitely framed. Peggy Dodds Williams ...

Bob Peak is one of the true giants of post-war American Illustration. He is a virtuoso artist, with a heightened level of skill and talent that very few living artists today possess...

Signed impressionist figurative pastel on board circa 1895 by sought after French impressionist painter Jean Louis Forain. The piece depicts a man asleep in a bed while a woman stands at the foot of the bed getting dressed. The room is dimly lit by the bedside lamp. Signature: Signed upper right Dimensions: Framed: 22"x26" Unframed: 15"x19" Provenance: Galerie Jean-Claude Bellier Jean Forain was the son of a painter and decorator and was apprenticed to a visiting card engraver. He studied briefly under Gérôme and Carpeaux at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and regularly visited the Louvre, where he copied works by the masters. It is said that for a time he made a precarious living by selling small drawings in the style of Grévin. He went on to collaborate on various publications as a draughtsman and columnist, starting in 1876 on La Cravache and then collaborating on the newspapers Le Journal Amusant, Le Figaro and L'Écho de Paris. This introduced him to the diverse worlds of Paris society - the world of the theatre, of shows, and of literature - where he wryly noted the habits and shortcomings particular to each. This led him to follow a route very characteristic of this period, already seen in the work of Steinlen, Caran d'Ache and Toulouse-Lautrec in the journals La Pléiade, La Vogue and La Revue Blanche. His work draws a picture of the society of the period, not in a strictly imitative fashion but in the form of the 'dessin-charge' or mild caricature. In 1880 he illustrated Parisian Sketches...

Bratin Khan - Enlightened - 30 x 24 inches (unframed size) Charcoal and Pastel on Canvas , 2012 ( Framed & Ready to Hang ) Style : Marked for the refined handling of line work and p...

Augmented Meteorite I is a unique pastel, 23k gold leaf, cotton paper drawing by contemporary English sculptor Oliver Ashworth-Martin, dimensions including oak frame are 120 × 120 cm...