Geneviève Daël: À travers le miroir

Geneviève Daël

Geneviève Daël À travers le miroir

Jonathan Cooper

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Geneviève Daël «...Qu’est-ce qui fascine dans un tableau, qui fait que telle œuvre plutôt que telle autre nous arrête et qu’on ne peut s’en détacher…c’est le sentiment que dans cette œuvre là il y a quelque chose qui pense, et qui pense sans mots....»

- Daniel Arasse, Histoire de Peintures (What is it that fascinates us in a painting, which makes one work rather than another stop us in our tracks, unable to leave it…it is the feeling that in this work there is something that is thinking, and that thinks without words…)

Her atmospheric interior scenes are populated by solitary figures, lost in the silence of reverie, or in the enjoyment of music imagined but not shared by the viewer. Seemingly frozen in time, her wistful characters are often viewed from behind, echoing Caspar David Friedrich’s bold adventurers. Unlike their Romantic forebears, however, Daël’s subjects do not contemplate a sublime landscape, but rather, like those of her compatriot Gustave Caillebotte, survey a cityscape through shuttered windows. The rooms which they inhabit, like her home and studio, are enclosed yet protective spaces, inviting us to contemplation.

As I stepped in to the courtyard of Geneviève Daël’s Parisian home on a crisp autumn morning I was struck first by its elegant beauty, and, as I closed its thick entrance door behind me and the busy sounds of Montmartre faded away, by its tranquillity. The contrasts between London and Paris are only ever accentuated by the disorientating swiftness of a Eurostar journey, and, making my way through shadowy corridors and up light-filled stairwells towards her studio, I knew that I was about to enter a remarkable world.

The duel influences of northern and southern Europe inform Daël’s work equally: although her lyrical sensitivity to light and subtle palette shares an affinity with the Dutch Golden Age and Hammershøi, in her depiction of the languorous beauty of Italian palaces and the dramatic chiaroscuro of the Mezzogiorno she shares Goethe’s yearning for the south. These diverse roots imbue her works with their ambiguous timelessness, and lead us to sense that here we are witnessing a distant memory of times past, through a glass, darkly.

Daël’s paintings perfectly capture the delicate interplay of light and shade across gilded furniture and patinated mirrors, and, although immediately and unquestionably beautiful, it is their mystery that fascinates and intrigues us, inviting our gaze to linger long beyond a first glance.

Rebecca Wall, 2016

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left

Le Corridor Oil on canvas | 28.74 × 19.69 ins ( 73 × 50 cm)

right

Villa Pisani Oil on canvas | 35.04 × 45.67 ins ( 89 × 116 cm)

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left

Attendre à la Villa Panza Oil on canvas | 21.26 × 31.89 ins ( 54 × 81 cm) right

Fin de journèe à Urbino Oil on canvas | 31.85 × 23.6 ins ( 81 × 60 cm)

left

Clair de lune Oil on canvas | 16.1 × 10.6 ins ( 41 × 27 cm) right

Jour de pluie sur le Vésuve Oil on canvas | 25.59 × 39.37 ins ( 65 × 100 cm)

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left

Chorale Oil on canvas | 23.62 × 23.62 ins ( 60 × 60 cm) right

Silence à la Certosa Oil on canvas | 19.69 × 39.37 ins ( 50 × 100 cm)

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Reflet improbable |

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Oil on canvas | 28.75 × 45.67 ins ( 73 × 116 cm)

Le Doute Oil on canvas | 28.74 × 23.62 ins ( 73 × 60 cm)

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L’Indiscrète Oil on canvas | 36.22 × 23.62 ins ( 92 × 60 cm)

La Dernière Cène |

Oil on canvas | 21.26 × 31.89 ins ( 54 × 81 cm)

right

Les Saisons | 16

Oil on canvas | 31.89 × 45.67 ins ( 81 × 116 cm)

Jalousies I Oil on canvas | 28.74 × 19.69 ins ( 73 × 50 cm)

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La Visite I Oil on canvas | 25.6 × 18.1 ins ( 65 × 46 cm)

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Ombre méridienne |

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Oil on canvas | 25.6 × 39.35 ins ( 65 × 100 cm)

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Geneviève Daël Geneviève Daël was born in Paris in 1947, and continues to live and work in Montmartre. She studied Decorative Arts at the Académie Charpentier. After a brief period spent living in London she returned to Paris, where she began to study painting independently, and worked as model for Dior while developing her artistic practise. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1984 with Francis Kyle, London, with whom she had nine further solo shows, along with many themed group exhibitions.

Solo Exhibitions 2002 Galerie Samagra, Paris, France 2007 Galerie du Fleuve, Paris, France 1984 – 2012 Francis Kyle Gallery, London

Mixed Exhibitions 2000

2001

2003 2005

2006

2008

2009 – 2010 2011

2013

2016

The Art of Memory: Contemporary Painters in search of Marcel Proust, Francis Kyle Gallery, London Galerie Samagra, Private Collection, San Diego, USA Galerie Samagra, Palm Springs Art Fair, USA Galerie Samagra, New York Art Fair, USA The Art of Memory, Royal National Theatre, London Galerie Samagra, Artistes de la Galerie, Paris, France Roma, Francis Kyle Gallery, London Lair of The Leopard: Twenty artists go in search of Lampedusa’s Sicily, Francis Kyle Gallery, London Everyone Sang, A view of Siegfried Sassoon and his World by Twenty Five Painters Today, Francis Kyle Gallery, London Mother Land: Contemporary painters from the West winter in Russia Francis Kyle Gallery, London Rarity Gallery, Myconos, Greece Byzantium, Francis Kyle Gallery, London This twittering world: Contemporary painters celebrate TS Eliot’s Four Quartets, Francis Kyle Gallery, London Jumping for Joyce: Contemporary painters revel in the world of James Joyce, Francis Kyle Gallery, London Jonathan Cooper, BADA Fair, London

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cover

Reflet improbable (detail) illustrated fully on page 13

inside front cover

Comme une Ombre o il on canvas | 15 × 21.6 ins ( 38 × 55 cm) page 2

Clair de lune (detail) illustrated fully on page 8

page 22

La Visite I (detail) illustrated fully on page 19

inside back cover

Le Corridor (detail) illustrated fully on page 4

Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk

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Jonathan Cooper 26