Paris Arts Club

Simon Hantaï: Pliage Simon Hantaï found his signature artistic style by using the 'Pliage' method (folding). It consists of scrunching up a piece of canvas, painting it and then unfolding it to discover the shapes produced, partly by chance. The revealed white spaces might take on a major role: Hantaï:  Whites 1973-5 This automatic process relates to Surrealist practice and to Freud. An anecdote tells us that in 1952 Simon Hantaï deposited a small work in front of André Breton's doorway. Its title was "Regarde" (Look). Breton welcomed Hantaï into the fold and he exhibited at the Surrealist Gallery 'L'Etoile Scellée'. A few years later Hantaï quit the movement.    A big artistic influence on Hantaï's art was Matisse. There are several late Matisses on show here: Henri Matisse: White seaweed on a red and green background, Vence 1947 Henri Matisse: Blue nude IV  Nice 1952 (Musée d'Orsay) Matisse, by the end of his life, had devised a way of painti...

Whistler: Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother 1871 Parisians are very lucky to have James McNeill Whistler's mother as a permanent resident. This was thanks to the efforts of French poet Mallarmé and friends, who thought it imperative that the French owned a great American work of art. Whistler himself, in his fifties in 1891, was hopeful of seeing his work in the Louvre at last and accepted a rather modest sum for what is generally considered as his masterpiece. Taking a modern stance, the artist claimed that the subject matter of a painting was not important (although of course his mother was to him), but that it was the painting himself that mattered- what the artist did with the subject.  The iconic painting is being shown at present opposite 3 powerful portraits normally on view in the Frick Collection, New York. Whistler: Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland 1871-74 Mrs. Leyland, the subject of the portrait,...

Berthe Morisot: Julie rêveuse (Julie daydreaming) 1894 The latest Marmottan Museum exhibition, which has just closed, was centred on Julie Manet (1878-1966) daughter of  Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot and niece of Edouard Manet. During her youth, Julie was lovingly surrounded by artists like Renoir, Degas and Monet. She may seem to have been very lucky, but at the same time she was unfortunate in losing both her parents within a 3 year period, leaving her an orphan at 17. Berthe Morisot:  Paule Gobillard painting  1887 Julie had 2 orphaned cousins- Paule and Jeannie- who were like sisters to her. After the death of Julie's mother, the three young women lived together in her family home in Paris' bourgeois district of Passy. Paule, ten years older than the other 2, was a dedicated artist. She is shown above painted by Mme Morisot and below sketched by Renoir. Renoir:  Portrait of Paule Gobillard, red chalk drawing (private collection) Renoir's distinctive '...