Btp 19-2015 (May)

“Furthermore, Van Gogh hated the medium of photography and he never wanted to be in the photo. Of the three photos which have surfaced, two from his childhood. Only one photo shows a mature Van Gogh, in the company of Émile Bernard, but only his back when he is sitting on the embarkment*”. (Het Parool, article, 30.04.2015).

“Bovendien had Van Gogh een hekel aan het medium fotografie en wilde hij nooit op de foto. Van de drie foto's die in het verleden van hem zijn opgedoken waren er twee uit zijn kindertijd. Slechts één foto toont een volwassen Van Gogh, in het gezelschap van Émile Bernard. Maar daarop zijn slechts de ruggen van de mannen te zien, terwijl ze aan het water zitten” (Het Parool quoting Van Gogh Museum Foto-expert, 30.04.2015).

Transmission 19-2015 “Van Gogh assis, vu de dos” Discovery of the original print

*Van Gogh assis, vu de dos. Connue des chercheurs car exposée à Amsterdam en 1990, ce cliché dont l’unique épreuve d’époque vient d’être retrouvée, montre Van Gogh vu de dos en conversation avec Émile Bernard (Cf. Sa seule photo (ou presque), Blog du journal Le Monde).

Contents of Transmission 19-2015 : The Shoulders of Van Gogh Van Gogh in Conversation with Bernard, 2 Émile Bernard’s specific handwriting, 4 Van Gogh in conversation with Fénéon, 5 Bridges of Asnières, 6 Romantic Agony Summer Auction, 8 Two covers you have missed

Uploaded at 3.15 pm 11th May 2015

Number Eighteen of the weekly transmission has been uploaded on Monday, 11th May at 15:15 (Paris time).

Upcoming uploads and transmissions : Monday 18h May Monday 25th May, Monday 1st June, Monday 8th June Serge Plantureux / Rhinocéros & Cie Studios Robespierre / 71 rue Robespierre 93100 Montreuil / France studios@robespierre.fr Phone (10am-5 pm) : (+33) 1.43.60.71.71 Correspondence in English, French, Dutch, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Turkish.

All updates are available on our site: www.photoceros.com

Discovery of the original print : :

“Vincent Van Gogh assis, vu de dos” This lot is part of Romantic Agony Summer auction (June 19th & 20th) Daguerreotypes, calotypes, autochromes, documentary photography, Public auction in Brussels on the 19th June at 2 p.m.

PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS In Paris, 5, rue du Perche, near the Picasso Museum From the 03/06/2015 to the 08/06/2015 10 am to 6pm In Brussels, 40 rue de l’Aqueduc, near the Horta museum From 12/06/2015 to 19/06/2015 10 am to 6 pm The auction will be also online with Drouot live

Transmission 19-2015

Week 19 : May 11 - 17, 2015

"Van Gogh assis, vu de dos” Asnières, winter 1886-1887 Aristotype, 132x160 mm, later mount, caption in ink by Bernard on the print, another handwriting on the folded mount.

Provenance : S. Clin, a collector of Émile Bernard’s paintings and memorabilia, who lent this unique print to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam for the Émile Bernard exhibition, August-Nov. 1990.

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Nevertheless, most photographic and digital copies still reproduce a post-1940’s version, printed from an inter-negative, the caption being partially hidden by a blank label. The first confirmed publication was in: Tralbaut, Van Gogh le mal aimé, Lausanne, 1969, page 210.

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Transmission 19-2015

Week 19 : May 11 - 17, 2015

This aristotype, or collodion coated paper print, is the only vintage print known of the famous picture welcoming visitors at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Sitting in front of Vincent Van Gogh, Émile Bernard who wrote “mon portrait en 1886” (My Portrait in 1886).

Only few objective elements can confirm the identification, the grey felt hat, the shoulders (see Pissarro, p.5). Émile Bernard is said to have only few friends.

The tree has no leaves, the weather could be cold. The date in the long second caption says 1887. In the Van Gogh correspondence, mentions of Asnières start only in 1887.

Who could have taken the picture? Paul Signac is knwn as a friend of both but no evidence of any photographic activity about 1887 could be found.

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Transmission 19-2015

Week 19 : May 11 - 17, 2015

ÉMILE BERNARD (1868-1941) Handwriting examples Comparison with the dedication to Émile Schuffenecker on a photographic reproduction of a Vincent Van Gogh Portrait, 1991. Émile Bernard’s handwriting is very peculiar, indeed, as any single letter is dissociated. Although there wasn’t a broad interest for graphology in the 1880’s, it is worth mentioning that the separation of letters inside words is generally associated by “graphologists” with a lack of synthetic thinking, which is ironic for an artist considered a promoter of an artistic movement called “Synthétisme”.

Examples of Bernard’s writing are not so common, for example ”all the letters from Émile Bernard to Van Gogh have to be considered lost. There must have been a few dozen of them” (Van Gogh Correspondence, Van Gogh Museum)”.

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Transmission 19-2015

Week 19 : May 11 - 17, 2015

The caption on folded margin Translation of the French text : [Émile Bernard in conversation with Vincent Van Gogh on the Seine’s banks at Asnières.

In 1887 both made a painting titled "Le Pont d’Asnières", bridge which can be seen in the background of this photograph.] “Émile Bernard en conversation avec Vincent Van-Gogh -sur les quais de la Seine à Asnières En 1887 tous deux firent une toile intitulée “Le Pont d’Asnières” que l’on aperçoit dans le fond de cette photographie.”

In this second caption, observing the handwriting, all single letters are dissociated from one another again, but look different from Bernard’s letters, for example in “Asnières”. The angle of the writing is quite different too. asnières 4

Asnières

Transmission 19-2015

Week 19 : May 11 - 17, 2015

Lucien Pissaro Vincent Van Gogh in conversation with Félix Fénéon Paris, winter 1887/1888 Black crayon on paper (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum).

An interesting description is given by Paul Signac when he commented on meeting up with Van Gogh in 1887 in Asnières: "I would encounter him at Asnières and at Saint-Ouen. We painted together on the riverbanks, we lunched at roadside cafes and we returned by foot to Paris via the Avenues of SaintOuen and Clichy. Van Gogh, wearing the blue overalls of a zinc worker, would have little dots of colour painted on his shirtsleeves. Striking quite close to me, he would be yelling, gesticulating and brandishing a large size-thirty, freshly painted canvas; in this fashion he would manage to polychrome both himself and the passers-by”.

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Transmission 19-2015

Week 19 : May 11 - 17, 2015

ÉMILE BERNARD (1868-1941) Self-portrait with portrait of Paul Gauguin Oil on canvas (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Émile often crosses Vincent’s path at Père Tanguy’s shop (Julien Tanguy, 1825-1894) and they regularly go for walks from Montmartre to Asnières, then an enjoyable resort where his parents had a house. Émile is the real great friend, the fellow of Vincent in the year 1887.

Bernard wrote the posthumous portrait of Vincent Van Gogh for the art magazine La Plume, Sept. 1891: "Red-heated (goatee, rough mustache, shaven scalp) with an eagle look and an incisive mouth, so to speak; of average height, stocky but not excessively so, with quick gestures and a gerky gait ; such was van Gogh, always with his pipe, a canvas or an engraving, or a sketch.

“Bernard painted this portrait at Vincent’ request, who, in emulation of Japanese artists, wished to exchange works.

Van Gogh was delighted with it, describing it as “a few simple tones, a few dark lines, but [...] as elegant as a true, genuine Manet” (Van Gogh Museum’s notice).

Vehement in speech, interminable in explaining and developing ideas, not given to controversy, that was him too ; and dreams, oh ! dreams ! Gigantic exhibitions, artist's philanthropic phalansteries, founding of colonies in the South, progressive invasion of the public for that reeducation of the masses who yet had known art in the past..."

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Transmission 19-2015

Week 19 : May 11 - 17, 2015

VINCENT VAN GOGH Bridges at Asnières Summer 1887

ÉMILE BERNARD Le Pont d’Asnières Summer 1887

Foundation E.G. Bührle, Zurich

PAUL SIGNAC Les Ponts d’Asnières Summer 1888

Bridge of Asnières Summer 1887 Private Collection 7

Save the auction date : 19 and 20 June, Brussels

INQUIRIES :

PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS

Belgium : France :

In Paris : 5, rue du Perche, near the Picasso Museum 03/06/2015 to 08/06/2015 10 am to 6 pm In Brussels : 40, rue de l’Aqueduc, near the Horta museum 12/06/2015 to 19/06/2015 10 am to 6 pm

auction@romanticagony.com + 32.25441055 studios@robespierre.fr +33.143607171 catalogue online as of May 18th

http://www.photoceros.com/19-06-2015-photographic-auction-in-brussels-romantic-agony/

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The covers you have missed

The covers you have missed

Transmission

Transmission

19-2015

19-2015

The Shoulders of Van Gogh

The Shoulders of Van Gogh

Uploaded at 3.15 pm Monday 11th May 2015 Studios Robespierre

Uploaded at 3.15 pm Monday 11th May 2015 Studios Robespierre