Octave Guillonnet Art

Emil Faesch (1865 Basel - 1915 Basel). Sketch of a head. Charcoal on painting cardboard, 60 x 47.5 cm (folio size), signed and dated at lower right "E. Faesch. 1888.". Minor browning. - Carved in stone - About the artwork The life-size head has an immensely present presence. This effect is due to the fact that Faesch took his cue from academic classical...

This painting was owned by Comte Robert de Montesquiou (1855–1921), Paris Literature: Jane Roberts, Jacques-Émile Blanche (2012), pg. 47 (color illus.), p. 191. Included as no. R...

An exceptional post-impressionist view of Florence, Italy by Carl Schmitz-Pleis (1877-1943). In the spring of 1910 Schmitz-Pleis and fellow friend/artist Walter Hugo Ophey travelled...

Hermann Prell (1854 Leipzig - 1922 Dresden-Loschwitz). Half-length portrait of a Pharisee, 1885. Sketch for the right-hand figure in the painting Judas Iscariot, 1886. Pencil drawing heightened with opaque white and black chalk on beige-grey wove paper (papier vélin), 34 x 27.8 cm (visible size), 52 x 45 cm (mount), signed, dated and inscribed "H. PRELL 1885 zu 'Judas'". Minor browning, collection stamp on the reverse. - In the shadow of betrayal - About the artwork This painting is the sketch for the head of the Pharisee offering the coins to Judas in one of Herrmann Prell's major works, the painting Betrayal of Judas, completed in 1886. The painting belongs to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and is illustrated in Adolf Rosenberg: Prell, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1901, p. 21 (Fig. 19). It is especially highlighted in Thieme-Becker (vol. 27, p. 376). Hermann Prell, Betrayal of Judas, 1886 The monumental head, which fills the picture and is distinguished by its ornamented robe, is almost a lost profile, which in the executed painting is justified by the Pharisee's turning towards Judas. Despite the fact that the sitter withdraws from the viewer by turning away, it was necessary to artistically elaborate the motivation for the purchase of one of Christ's disciples, which is why the drawing focuses on the expression of the face, while the 'accessories' are treated in a more summary manner. In characterising the face, Hermann Prell performs a balancing act: since the Pharisee, despite his destructive actions, is an actor in the history of salvation, the head must show a dignity appropriate to the event, but at the same time the physiognomy must also bear witness to the scheming attitude that led to the betrayal. To solve this dilemma, Prell draws on the traditional depictions of the heads of the apostles, shading the face to indicate the obdurate darkness of the spirit and moving the base of the nose slightly upwards while the mouth falls away, thus giving a physiognomic expression to the motivation of the action. The fatal drama of the betrayal is expressed in the monumentalisation of the head and in the thunderous white highlights that contrast with the darkness of the chalk. As a study, considered by the artist to be a work in itself, this drawing reveals the pictorial problems and brainstorming of monumental painting. About the artist In 1872 Prell, who was one of the most important exponents of monumental painting of his time, began studying painting with Theodor Grosse at the Dresden Academy of Art and continued with Carl Gussow at the Berlin Academy in 1876. Hans von Marées taught him in Rome in 1878. More influential on his work, however, were Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger, with whom Prell had been friends since his student days and with whom he worked together on several occasions. Prell's first major work, which established his reputation as a monumental painter, were the frescoes in the banqueting hall of the Architektenhaus in Berlin in 1881/82, commissioned by the state and depicting the different periods of architecture. Prell then went to Italy for two years to study fresco painting. Other major commissions followed. These included monumental frescoes in the town halls of Worms (1884), Hildesheim (1882-92), Gdansk (1895) and Dresden, the staircase of the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau (1893/94), the throne room of the German Embassy in Rome (1896-99) and the staircase of the Albertinum in Dresden (1900-1904). From 1886 Prell taught at the academy of arts in Berlin and in 1892 he was appointed professor at the academy of arts in Dresden. His students included Osmar Schindler and Hans Unger...

Vortex is a contemporary figurative charcoal and conté drawing on watercolour paper that explores motion, gravity, and the expressive potential of the human form. Rendered in rich mo...

“Study for Neobule, 1894” by Sir Edward John Poynter (English, 1836-1919) This exquisite 1894 study by Sir Edward John Poynter (1836–1919) serves as a preparatory drawing for his pa...

Gaston Sebire (1920-2001) Vue de Rouen Oil on canvas Size : 65 x 81 cm Signed lower right Provenance : Private Collection, France Very good condition. Original canvas. Frame included...

Plaza Nova Barcelona Gothic Quarter Oil Painting Spanish Fauvist Cityscape Artist: Ignasi Mundó Marcet (1918–2012) Title: Plaza Nova, Barcelona Medium: O...

Marcel COSSON (1878-1956) Madame Cosson dans son Jardin Oil on canvas Size : 60,4 x 73,4 cm Signed lower left Painting in perfect condition Without frame Sold with invoice and certif...

André HAMBOURG (1909-1999) Sur la plage, Trouville, 1952 Oil on canvas Painting dimensions: 27 x 35.5 cm Signed lower right Title on the back Painting in perfect condition Frame c...

Gabriel Casarrubios Martín (1953) - Fishermen - Oil on panel Oil size 27x22 cm. Frameless. Gabriel Casarrubios Martín (1953) The Toledo artist trained in Fine Arts in Madrid, at th...

Italian School, 17th century Study for the Vision of Saint Anthony Red chalk on paper 247 x 185 mm Unsigned Provenance Private collection, Paris Collection of Count Alessandro Mag...