Art Of The Day Weekly
#481 - from 13 July 2017 to 13 September 2017
Achille Laugé, The Flowering Tree (L'arbre en fleur), 1893, oil on canvas, 59.4 x 49.2 cm (23 3/8 x 19 3/8 inches). Private collection ©Achille Laugé, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2017
Paris 1900
BILBAO - Paris at the end of the 19th century continues to be a favorite. We are always ready for another Toulouse-Lautrec, no matter how often we have seen his work. Yet it is not the famous clubfoot, here with his famous lithographs (or Bonnard for that matter), which are the most interesting part of the exhibition. The event actually gives the opportunity to see lesser known works as they come from a private collection. We will easily be charmed by Redon’s charcoals and his bright pastels, such as the magnificent Barque, one of his favorite themes, on a molten blue sea, some works by Maurice Denis in his youth, at the time of Pont-Aven, shrouded in an airy mysticism that would become more insistent with time. There is a group of talented artists, usually placed in the second row among the Nabis or the neo-impressionists, and consequently often forgotten: Paul Ranson, Maximilien Luce, Georges Lacombe, Achille Laugé, Charles Angrand. A large scene of Montmartre by Louis Anquetin guides us into the seedy atmosphere of a cabaret we imagine filled with the vapors of absinthe.
• Paris fin de siècle at the Guggenheim Bilbao, from 12 May to 17 September 2017. Catalogue Columbus Museum of Art, 164 p., €30.