Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2

Celso Lagar
"The Clown", 20th Century Gouache on Cardboard by Spanish Artist Celso Lagar

1952

About the Item

CELSO LAGAR Spanish, 1891 - 1966 THE CLOWN signed and dated "Lagar 52" (lower right) gouache on cardboard 10-5/8 x 8 inches (27 x 20.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Private French Collector Celso Lagar Arroyo (Ciudad Rodrigo, 1891 - Seville, 1966) was an expressionist Spanish painter of the first generation of the School of Paris, where he lived most of his life. He was influenced by avant-gardes of all kinds, such as cubism and fovism. He painted mainly landscapes and still lifes. From a personal point of view, he is a depressive person and completely dependent on his wife, the French sculptor Hortense Begué. From his native Ciudad Rodrigo, he went to Madrid to be part of the workshop of one of the best sculptors of the moment, Miguel Blay. During 1910 and 1911 he visited Barcelona. Later he studied sculpture in Paris in 1911 advised by Blay, where he met Joseph Bernard, his friend Amedeo Modigliani and his future wife, the French sculptor, Hortense Begué. It will be precisely at that moment when, gradually, he leaves the sculpture in favor of painting. The outbreak of the First World War will mean, in the life and work of Celso Lagar, the beginning of a new stage. He remained in Barcelona during the war, where he achieved a certain recognition, which allows him to return to Paris. In 1919 he settled permanently in France. His time until the end of the 30s, is the moment of his greatest splendor of the artist. He manages to exhibit his works in the best Parisian galleries, his production is abundant and constant. Both in his residence in Paris and in his rooms, since 1928, in Normandy he will develop an artistic production with very specific themes: still lifes, Spanish reminiscences, landscapes and his celebrated circus scenes. After the period of avant-garde influences of all kinds (Cubism, Fauvism, Vibrationism, Biologism, Simultaneism, Ultraist, ...), Celso Lagar will find his own path marked mainly by Goyesque and Picasian inspiration. Critical and public recognition increases. With the onset of World War II, its golden age will end. Lagar and Hortense are forced to take refuge in the French Pyrenees amid very difficult living conditions. His return after the liberation of Paris did not have such an impact. Lagar will continue with the same themes and techniques before the war but the public is already looking for new content. Gradually, success fades and economic hardships affect the couple. At this time around the year 1950, his wife Hortense enters the hospital Broca and in 1955 dies. Lagar falls into a deep depression and will enter the psychiatric hospital of Sainte Anne. His artistic work ends completely. At that time, by court order, two auctions of the works that remained in his workshop are held, to pay for his stay in the asylum. In October 1964 he returned to Spain living in Seville with a sister until his death on September 6, 1966. His paintings are found in numerous museums throughout Europe, such as: La Rochelle, Goya Museum in Castres, Honfleur (France), Petit-Palais de Geneva, Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, Casa Lis de Salamanca, Carmen Thyssen Museum ( Malaga) and in prestigious collections such as Crane Kallman (London) or Zborowski (Paris). He was illustrator of several magazines, among them, the Spanish Magazine Nova, Un enemic del Poble and Troços.
  • Creator:
    Celso Lagar (1891 - 1966, Spanish)
  • Creation Year:
    1952
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 10.63 in (27 cm)Width: 8.27 in (21 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Madrid, ES
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1281110393232

More From This Seller

View All
"Jeune femme aux fleurs" 20th Century oil on canvas by Jean-Gabriel Domergue
By Jean-Gabriel Domergue
Located in Madrid, ES
JEAN GABRIEL DOMERGUE French, 1889 – 1962 "JEUNE FEMME AUX FLEURS" Signed & dated "Jean-Gabriel Domergue ´28 " (lower right) With the Atelier stamp on the stretcher and canvas on the reverse Oil on canvas 32 X 25-3/4 inches (81 x 65 cm.) framed: 39-1/2 X 33-1/4 inches (100 X 84 cm.) PROVENANCE Private Collection, Madrid Note: We are grateful to Mr. Noé Willer for confirming the authenticity of this work which is recorded in the archives of the Artist. Painter born in Bordeaux, in 1889 and died in Paris in 1962. He began painting his mother's portraits very soon. He studied at the National Superior School of Fine Arts. The artist considered his teacher and inspiring Degas. Between 1904 and 1907 he joined Fauvism. In 1905 he participated in the "Autumn Hall" and in the "Hall of Independents". In 1907 he presented his 1st individual exhibition at the Vollard Gallery. He specialized in female portraits of Parisian ladies, creating a unique, sophisticated and elegant female portrait prototype that characterized him forever. He played an essential role in the evolution of women's fashion of his time. He designed numerous dresses, hats and accessories for famous designers such as Paul Poiret and Henry Marque It goes down in history as the architect of a new type of woman, thin, with an elegant air, always with style, with unusual elongated necks, with impressive slanted eyes, that seem to look at the world in amazement, perhaps because they express a feeling of freedom towards Society and its norms. With these paintings of women, he showed the world the true French, elegant, beautiful and with a gooseneck. In 1914 he won the Rome Prize. Many celebrities of the time posed for the artist, Josephine Baker, Brigitte Bardot, etc. But although he painted numerous nude actresses...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Reflection", 19th Centuty oil oncanvas by Argentinian painter G. Mendilaharzu
Located in Madrid, ES
GRACIANO MENDILAHARZU Argentinian, 1857 - 1894 "REFLECTION" signed "Mendilaharzu" (lower left) oil on canvas 18-1/4 X 15 inches (46 X 38 cm.) framed: 27-1/4 X 23-3/4 inches (69 X 60...
Category

1890s Naturalistic Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Under the Parasol", 20th Century Oil on Canvas Attributed to Laureano Barrau
Located in Madrid, ES
ATTRIBUTED TO LAUREANO BARRAU Spanish, 1863 - 1957 UNDER THE PARASOL unsigned oil on canvas 35-1/2 x 26 inches (90 x 66 cm.) framed: 44-1/4 x 35-1/2 in...
Category

1920s Naturalistic Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Forains sur la Plage", 20th Century Oil on Canvas by Artist Celso Lagar
By Celso Lagar
Located in Madrid, ES
CELSO LAGAR Spanish, 1891 - 1966 FORAINS SUR LA PLAGE signed "Lagar" (lower right) oil on canvas 11-1/2 x 16-1/8 inches (29 x 41 cm.) PROVENANCE Private French Collector Celso Laga...
Category

1950s Fauvist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Interieur aux Fleurs Jaunes" 20th Century Oil on Canvas by Emilio Grau Sala
By Emilio Grau Sala
Located in Madrid, ES
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...
Category

1960s Fauvist Interior Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Francisco Bores, Sans titre
By Francisco Bores
Located in Madrid, ES
FRANCISCO BORES Spanish, 1898 - 1972 SANS TITRE signed and dated "Borès 42" (lower left) oil on panel 13-3/4 x 10-5/8 inches (35 x 27 cm.) framed: 19 x 15-3/4 inches (48 x 40 cm.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: Francisco Bores, Reasoned Catalogue, Volume I - Painting 1917-1944, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2003, nº 1942 / 63, reproduced in p. 494 PROVENANCE Carmen Bores Collection, Francisco Bores daughter Private Collection, Madrid Francisco Bores López (Madrid, May 5, 1898 - Paris, May 10, 1972) was a Spanish painter of the so-called New School of Paris. His artistic training originated both in the Cecilio Pla painting academy, where he met Pancho Cossío, Manuel Ángeles Ortiz or Joaquín Peinado, and in the literary gatherings in Madrid related to ultraism. At this time he made engravings and woodcuts for a large number of magazines such as Horizonte, Cruz y Raya, Index, Revista de Occidente. In 1922 he participated in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. In 1925 he participated in the first exhibition of the Iberian Artists Society. The limited success of this exhibition pushes him to go to Paris. In this city he shared a studio with the Spanish painter Pancho Cossío and also met Picasso and Juan Gris. In 1927 he held his first solo exhibition in Paris. From this moment on, Bores integrates himself into the Parisian artistic environment where he will live practically his entire life. In 1928, his first exhibition in a gallery in the United States, in 1930 he exhibited again, within a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the following years, he continued exhibiting in different galleries in Paris, such as the Georges Petit Gallery, the Bernheim Gallery and the Vavin Raspail Gallery. He also participates in several group exhibitions, highlighting the Exhibition of Contemporary Spanish Art...
Category

1940s Fauvist Interior Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

You May Also Like

Mid Century Fauvist Portrait of a Girl
Located in Soquel, CA
Mid-century fauvist portrait of a girl with colorful, textured impasto by Mary Sheppard (American, 20th Century), 1956. Signed and dated "Mary Sheppard '56" lower right. Unframed. Im...
Category

1950s Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Canvas, Cardboard

Woman in the Sun
Located in THOMERY, FR
This gouache painting captures a woman comfortably seated in a lounge chair on a sunny patio. Her long purple hair and sunglasses give her a relaxed, summery look. Her body is repres...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Kees Van Dongen Circus Performers 1900s Vintage Vibrant Figure Fauvist Signed
By Kees van Dongen
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Les Artistes du Cirque" is an original painting in ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper by leading Fauvist artist Kees Van Dongen, signed in the lower right. In the piece, two circus performers stand against against a wall. On the left, a pale woman in a blue leotard with red flowers on the shoulder stands with her arms crossed, looking out at the viewer. The painter fills in her tights with delicate white brushstrokes, lending them an almost iridescent appearance. Her strawberry blond hair is piled on top of her hair according to the fashion of the period. On the right, an African man stands in a vivid orange toga, looking somewhere off to the left. His feet are clad in bright white shoes...
Category

Early 1900s Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache

Young model original oil on board painting woman
By Ramón Aguilar Moré
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Frame size 47x60 cm. Ramon Aguilar i Moré (Barcelona, ​​1924-Barcelona, ​​September 23, 2015) was a Spanish painter. His work was influenced by the expressionist movement, although ...
Category

1970s Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Introspective Woman / Actress on Movie Set. Mid Century Art, Female Illustrator
By Lorraine Fox
Located in Miami, FL
Lorraine Fox was an American illustrator and commercial artist who illustrated magazines, book covers, and advertisements. Among the magazines, she illustrated for were Woman's Day, ...
Category

1960s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Board, Pencil

Portrait of a Woman, Woman's Magazine Illustration Mid Century
By Edwin Georgi
Located in Miami, FL
Portrait of a Woman Mixed media on board , Redbook magazine interior illustration done in the 1950's , Work is unframed
Category

1950s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Recently Viewed

View All