Ivan Messenger

'Making Empanadas', California Watercolor Society, San Diego Museum of Art

Stamped, verso, with estate stamp for Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and created circa 1950. A loose study of a woman seated in a dress, resting her chin on her hand and recli...

Signed lower right, 'Dambourgez' for Edouard-Jean Dambourgez (French, 1844-1931), titled, 'Paris' and painted circa 1880. Titled with inscription, verso, on old backing, ''Taverne Pausset', grands boulevards a Paris". A fine and detailed, cabinet-size oil painting showing an elegant Parisian cafe and bar, the interior lit by luminous, floor-to-ceiling stained-glass windows and filled with fashionably-dressed patrons drinking and socializing beneath a haze of pipe and cigar smoke. A minor, period masterpiece, providing an animated view of the city's fin-de-siècle nightlife, and characterised by finely observed and fully-realized figures showing an unusual degree of both social commentary and psychological penetration. Edouard-Jean Dambourgez first studied with Jules Lefebvre and, subsequently, as an engraver and chromo-lithographer under Gustave Boulanger. In 1880, Dambourgez commenced exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français, and, in 1883, was elected a member of the Society. Throughout the 1880's, he exhibited frequently and with success at the major Paris salons including the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Independants and the Salon des Champs-de-Mars. In 1884, he was commissioned by the Louvre to engrave all illustrations for the catalog to the Thiers Collection, recently bequeathed to the Museum. The recipient of numerous prizes, medals and juried awards, Dambourgez was awarded an honorable distinction by the Salon in 1888, and an honorable mention in 1891. In 1888, the critic Albert Wolff recommended his painting, 'A Cheese Shop', for inclusion at the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1891, the city of Paris bought his large canvas, 'The Cream and Cheese Market...

Oil on canvas

EMILIO GRAU SALA Spanish, 1911 - 1975 INTERIEUR AUX FLEURS JAUNES signed "Grau Sala" (lower left) signed again, located, dated and titled "Grau Sala, Paris 61, Interieur aux fleurs jaunes" (on the reverse) oil on canvas 15 x 18-1/4 inches (38 x 46 cm.) framed: 23-1/2 x 26-1/2 (59.5 x 67 cm.) PROVENANCE Private Parisian Collection Interieur aux fleurs jaunes This interior with two female figures where also the plans made in different colors are drawing the composition. The abundant pictorial material distributed in geometric portions, gives life to the tablecloth and mother and daughter figures, in black and white colors of the jacket, while the black line takes care of the environments so as not to separate them. The fruit bowl and flowers give a cheerful touch with their pastel tones. Emilio Grau Sala came from a family of artists. He was born in Barcelona in 1911 and his father, a good cartoonist, had been one of the promoters of the "Salon des Humanistes" and made his exhibitions normally in "Sala Parés", Barcelona. His first works were exhibited at the Salon des Independents. In the years 1930-33 he had painted under the influence of Cubism, especially that of Torres García. It is from that time a painting of the port of Barcelona, ​​geometric and structural, which completely anticipated what would later be his work. His personality began fully painting watercolors and oils with a certain fantasy character, with a point of decorative instinct and themes full of naivety and grace. Romantic interiors, paddocks, port scenes, sailors, etc. Grau Sala was essentially a Mediterranean painter, son of post-impressionism and enriched with French painting of the last fifty years. Mediterranean because his work has the color and light of that land. He understood and assimilated impressionist painting very well, and for that reason he was never subject to the modules of a formulist realism, nor the sexigencias of the forms. In Paris he found the best environment to give us a fruitful and intense work, because he could use the expressive potential of French art to enrich it. All this made him a very esteemed artist everywhere where his work was known. He was also very often required to illustrate books and publications in Paris. Also his posters were very successful. He painted a large number of subjects, but perhaps the theme of horse racing is where you can see in a very clear way the joyful and optimistic life that was lived at that time. In this fabric there is an explosion of juicy and vivid colors full of ingenuity and simplicity in its composition. Only a teacher could turn the complicated into something simple and beautiful. Before this work we feel a deep emotion, the emotion of before starting a horse race. Joy and nervousness at the same time. Especially since it is a direct emotion. There are no intermediaries between our eyes and what the work intends to tell us. This is precisely what seduces and catches us of this painting. His works can be found in the Museums of the Villa de Paris, L'Ile de France Museum, at the Château de Sceaux, Honfleur Museum, La Rochelle Museum, Barcelona Museum...