SVERIGE

Köp, Byt och Sälj

Llamada de flecha hacia abajo:

Pergamino horizontal:
1870-1924)

37 x 54.5 cm

38.5 x 60 cm

Mátten avser inkl. ramar.

Se inramning pá nedanstáende bild.

37.5 x 47 cm

Léon Bonhomme was born in the basement of the building called "33 la Grâce de Dieu" (by the grace of God) during one of the bombings of Paris that took place at the time of the Franco-Prussian war. This tumultuous beginning may have affected Bonhomme’s whole life for, although witty and good-looking, he was also wild, feisty (Matisse called him a "true fighting rooster"), and unsociable to the point of reclusion.

At the age of fifteen, Leon was placed in the Henri IV Highschool, as a boarder. He was already drawing everything in sight. He then entered the studio of Jean-Jacques Henner and, later, that of Gustave Moreau. Among his fellow students were Matisse, Rouault, Guerin, Camoin, and Marquet. At that time, unable to find a market for their own works, Matisse and Bonhomme (who was quite poor), painted copies of Old Masters in the Louvre Museum.

In 1898 Bonhomme’s works (several portraits of women, and a lovely one of his mother) began appearing at various shows. He made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1897 with a still-life and the wonderfully firm and luminous portrait of his father.

He also took part in the Universal Exhibition of 1900. Around that time, however, maybe because of his unrequited love for a countess, he retired from ‘society’ and lived in seclusion in his studio. There, he produced admirable watercolors and gouaches in which he combined the most striking colors, and, with fast and nervous strokes, created flashing visions of the world of the circus and the atmosphere of the music halls.

Rouault was the only person, and fellow artist, whom Bonhomme admitted to his atelier at 24 rue Lafayette. There, Bonhomme, an excellent pianist, played Chopin, Schumann and Mozart, and shared with his friend his constant dissatisfaction with his work and his search for new techniques.

This intimacy, and the fact that Bonhomme had chosen to live in such complete seclusion (he never had a dealer, even refusing to be represented by Ambroise Vollard, and never exhibited after 1903) is probably why the consensus was that Bonhomme had derived his style from that of Rouault. It was quite the other way around: the earliest ‘Rouault-like’ watercolors of Bonhomme precedes Rouault’s style by five years.

The so-called ‘rehabilitation’ of Bonhomme started in France two decades after his death.

On May 21, 1942, Florent Fels, in his article in Le Mot d’Ordre, (The Password) wrote:

"It was a strange destiny, that of this prodigious artist. Combining the most striking colors he created flashing visions, which cannot be compared to any others in the history of painting".

In 1948, Arsene Alexndre wrote:

"Bonhomme remained in obscurity of his own free-will. And now…

his masterly genius stands".

In 1955, a forty-line article in Kanur’s Lexikon stated:

"Bonhomme died without the success that the unusual strength and expression of his work should have earned him".

Bonhomme, Léon Félix - Le Pere de L'Artist

He made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1897 with a still-life and the wonderfully firm and luminous

Portrait of his father.

Léon Félix Bonhomme
(French, 1870-1924)

(Portrait of the Artist's Father
Signed lower left
Bonhomme

Oil on canvas
Sight size: 36 ¼ x 27 ¼ in. 1 in = 2.54 cm.
Framed size: 42 ½ x 33 ½ in.

Painted circa 1905

Exklusiv inramning gjord i

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Intressant att veta kan kanske vara: Nuvarande ägare fick köpa dessa tre fantastiska konstverk av en mycket stor och berömd konsthandlare i södra Frankrike 1983. Endast under en förutsättning!

Villkoret var, att INTE sälja dem en och en.

De máste höra ihop. Konsthandlaren hade själv lovat, jag vet inte varför, att dessa tre verk skulle vara tillsammans i sá láng tid som möjligt när han köpte dem av konstnären förmodligen 1920 – 1921. Nágot osäker pá ártalen.