Curator's Introduction | Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet to Cézanne

good afternoon my name is Ann Robinson associate curator of first 1,800 paintings here at the National Gallery and the curator of Cocteau Impressionists our new exhibition photo Impressionists from Manitou sedan which opened just at the beginning of last week so I'm going to give you an introduction to the exhibition this afternoon as you all know the koto gallery has closed for refurbishment just a few weeks ago which means that thanks to the generosity of our colleagues at the koto gallery we have the opportunity to exhibit 26 of their great master works here at the National Gallery this autumn and this is of course wonderful for us it's it's wonderful to be able to show them here in Trafalgar Square where Samuel Scott semi-autos legacy is so profoundly felt so who was cuto he was born in 1876 in a family of French descent hence the French sounding name which had settled in England in the 17th century as they were fleeing persecution they were Protestant you know who settled in this country in the late 17th century and and nearly 19th established a textile business in Essex and this business soon expanded and grew greatly they were turning into a big major multinational with branches not just in this in in Europe but as far as as America and and they actually encountered success developing and manufacturing a kind of artificial silk called the rayon which was a substitute for a cheaper substitute for silk so with with the cost of family business having expanded so greatly when croutha when Samuel crota took over in the early in 1920 it meant that he had an exceptional it was exceptionally wealthy and he had the means of acquiring out at a very high level so he was able to amass this collection of exceptional importance but he was also he didn't just have a passion for the Arts but he was also passionate about sharing it about the fostering of the arts and he was incredibly public spirited he very much believes that art was essential to the to the public and he was deeply concerned about the public access to the paintings he had collected he wanted people to enjoy and learn from them so in fact as I'm sure you know in 1932 he gave a number of the painting he had collected to the newly founded cocoa Institute which he had helped fund and and and financed himself and then he ended up recruiting more of his paintings at his after his his death but before that in fact in 1923 and it is where as a story of crew toes and our history here at the National Gallery intersect in a wonderful way in 1923 Samuel croto established a special fund of 50,000 pounds which was a very large sum of money at the time it was the equivalent of 100 new suburban houses and he had set aside that special sum of money specifically for the purchase of modern foreign paintings for the nation and so why why this decision it was very much because his kind of painting was still viewed with deep suspicion in in England and very much neglected by museum officials so there were only a few examples of impressionist and post-impressionist works to be to be seen on the walls of museum so this was a gift of tremendous importance these paintings now forms a nucleus of a Verona a collection of modern foreign collection here at the National Gallery but first and foremost Cocteau wanted wanted to ensure that everyone had access to these paintings and every one could have the kind of privileged experience he had been able to enjoy himself so about a structure of the exhibition it is formed of these two groups of paintings so he picked the pictures he got to had acquired for himself in 1920s and early 30s which now forms the core of the quarter gallery and the collection he funded and assembled for donations and now the nucleus of modern foreign works at the National Gallery so the show is in fact doing two things it's a celebration of summer quarters achievements as a collector but it's also comparing and assessing these two collections he was assembling simultaneously but maybe maybe even more than that the exhibition is is in fact a survey of Impressionism and post-impressionism through some of the best works that these the artists of this movement ever painted and you will see that the exhibition includes some of the absolute landmarks in the history of of painting and some of the most emblematic works and in the hang itself when we were thinking of how best to organize the exhibition we chose not to separate these two collections so the pictures Samuel Cotabato himself and those for the for the nation but we displayed them we display them next to next to each other in 12 sections which are each devoted to an artist so as it was the exhibition and Falls like a history of Impressionism and post-impressionism from domi we start with Damien and we end with bonus oh it's actually beyond money to Suzanne as the title does not indicate and what we want to highlight is what a turning point this precise moment was in the history of painting in France it was a vital faith when when when his new generation of artists were bringing a new energy to painting and very much overturning new rules and and laying new foundations and and we also try and focus on this particular moment in 1920s which was an important time in the history of the reception of Impressionism and post-impressionism in this country where as I said it had been much misunderstood so the first artists in the exhibition in the earliest is honoré daumier so the only artists in the exhibition and in photos collection not directly connected with Impressionism or post-impressionism domi was born in in marseille and he had really made a success he was quite successful in his lifetime and not as a painter but as a caricaturist and lithographer he was producing cartoons he was very prolific very successful cartoons for the satirical press of the time for for political journals and he's I'm sure you're familiar with his caricatures which target politicians and lawyers bankers actors all Lampoon for the ridicule and they really bring a unique insight into that that period so a great reputation as a cartoonist but all his life to me I wanted to achieve success as a painter and as a painter he he also depicted contemporary subject but he was also very interested in themes from literature so he based paintings on on scenes from Hebei or mullion and has seen in 17th century French theater but also Cervantes Don Quixote Cervantes like years this is one such painting by domi on the literary scene this is based on on on Cervantes Don Quixote this a committee of knights and chivalry where you see Don Quixote who's charging a flock of sheep actually thinking this is an advancing army you see the so it's a cloud of dust in Thea in in the distance it's you see as well how much his style has reemerged has remained very much that of a draftsman with a strong emphasis online and his attention to the contrast of light and shade and in fact this painting is one of four exceptions in the exhibition of paintings which were actually never acquired by cuto but which was nonetheless of tremendous importance for him this Don Quixote from part of the lane bequest so a few words about Sir Hugh Lane he was a pioneer collector an Irish man Irish dealer a collector and a very much a pioneer collector of modern French painting in in the first decade of the the first and second decade of the 20th century he died tragically in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 and the paintings contained in his bequest were first shown in London here in Trafalgar Square in very early 1917 and in fact so it was a temporary display temporary exhibition which summer crypto happened to see and that was a moment of great importance in the shaping of his taste and he himself talk later of the quote considerable visual shock that this exhibition gave him and indeed just six years later when he and his wife were just embarking on forming their own private collection of paintings the set asides on this Daumier so statistics about six years after this exhibition in May 1923 which is actually larger than the earlier painting but has also a more sketchy quality it's a it may have been intended as a as a decoration actually and and in fact as a sketch it probably had extra appeal for the Cocteau as it was maybe a more accurate reflection of kowtows creativity so this was no doubt acquired by Samuel crook toe with the earlier Don Quixote from the land bequest still fresh in his mind and this is something that proto would often do which was to to measure what he bought against what was already in his and vice-versa that's the second section in the exhibition is centered around many so many in in many regards the precursor of Impressionism which which meant it is now incredibly famous paintings with on a subject on subject matters drawn from Modern Life executed with astonishing freedom in in handling so many actually never participated in any of the Impressionists exhibition in the 1870s and 80s always preferring to show his work at the official salon but he nonetheless was crucially influential on the Impressionists and had a really formative influence on them he was opposed to conventions all things which greatly appealed to this new generation of of artists and proto's collections total collections and compassed both early and late works so but they were already great examples of Manny's work international collection by the early 1920s and one of them was this Manny's music in the trilogy garden the first major painting of of modern city life my name was always deeply involved in the in the world of his day its modernity in its subject matters it's our money as contemporaries his friends and and his his family and musicians writers and fellow painters listening to music to a band playing to a concert being performed on planer but in fact the orchestra is nowhere to be found you know we are standing where the orchestra would be so it is it is as I said modern in its subject matter and modern in in the way in which many elaborated the composition basing it on on on portrait photographs of his friends and and and relatives and it is also painted in a very much consciously modern way as a kind of statement in addition it doesn't really have it doesn't have a focal point so it's its composition itself Fiza is particularly daring it shows many radically new treatment of space as as a statement so this painting again had been bought by Sir Hugh Lane and exhibited who and exhibited it was exhibited at the National Gallery in 1917 in this show which proved an eye-opener for for cement proto and which marked his decisive encounter with modern foreign painting in in terms of his own of the many Cocteau collected himself as I said both early and late works the earliest of these was a version of the dizziness whole abscess is a painting which had created an absolute scandal at the at the saloon every day in in 1863 a scandal because of its harsh and flat colors a kind of extreme schematize ation of foam and of course the allusion to the old master references but but in fact this it's a pastoral scene but with with references with also references to contemporary life when you see the donated model looking straight at us but surrounded by by this young man fully dressed in student attire so so a very famous composition and Cocteau was was was no doubt attracted by a particular reputation of this painting and it's a controversial subject so an early work in photos collection she bought in in 1928 but also a late work so this is above at affordable jazz the absolute highlight in proto's collection the painting for which he paid most money 20:22 more than 22,000 thousand in at the time it was a sizable sum and Manny's great last masterpiece it's a painting which very much sums up his achievements as a painter it it depicts his own world so it was a world in which he felt most at ease the world of theatres and cafes and and and and cabacas it's also a very carefully thought through throughout sort through composition and in addition it shows it's a brilliant demonstration of Manny's impressionist techniques of his last year's you see how this man is great use of white and and soft blond harmonies he manages to bring out so what is it so first it is it's a portrait we know who this young woman was not just a paid model she was the actual one of the actual waitresses at above at the phony burger so the burgesses theater which still stands still stands to the states in the Ravi che in Paris in the 9th arrondissement so a portrait of Susan the waitress but also an astonishing still life which is you see how the bottles and tangerine Cynthia in the glass bowl they depicted with this incredible mastery and then behind the waitress herself who states it stands frontally at the bow there is this large mirror which reflects the room in which the scene is set and we know that the fully bearshare the space of the Folie Bergere as in is like a horseshoe and and you you get a sense of that with you the first floor balcony reflected in the in the mirror so what we see of of the room itself is that is a kind of blood image observed in the mirror which also reflects a smoky atmosphere of the of the room and a lot of a lot has been said about the girls the waitresses expression you know she's distant possibly melancholy she's lost in her thoughts she looks remote and disconnected but in fact even more has been said about her pose so as I say it's translated frontal whereas the reflection in zamira shows her as observed from the side so in fact as if the mirror had been placed at an angle whereas she is actually seen from the from the front so it so there is a discrepancy between her and her reflection which is displaced to the right and what do we see in the reflection to the to the right we see a probably older moose that showed a man who is holding a cane probably posed by an artist friend of mine a was called Gaston latouche but the interesting thing about this is that the man stands where we would have been so in that sense we are involved in the painting it is reflecting a space in which we are supposed to be standing and this in itself raises many questions and makes us part of the story which man is trying to tell here it's the story going on here is slightly ambiguous you know we are not quite sure of the type of exchange the waitress is having with you with you as a man in a in a top hat and I think it's this is really the great talent of money it's involving us in senior painting and this you know the fact that see the image of the waitress and the reflection in a mirror didn't match was remarked by the contemporary critics from very early on from the moment when this work was shown at the salon in 1882 because it was Manny's last great submission to the official salon so year before his death and once this critical stop actually you see this is a wonderful little cartoon in which he corrects Manny's painting by added the man in the in in the foreground so really a real absolute treasure in Coco's collection and possibly one of the world's most famous paintings today now we move on from money to he's near namesake money so this time a key figure of the Impressionist movement one of the founding members of of the of the movement you you you all know the story of this group of young painters banding together in 1874 and decided deciding to exhibit their work independently having been constantly snapped by the salon and the first show their works in 1874 in the studio of the photographer nada and what the paintings have in common is that they very executed incredibly freely with broken brushwork with a kind of lack of finish and in fact one of Monet's own paintings up questions later wrong impression sunrise will attract particular scorn at the first impressionist exhibition and it will be called the Rizzoli impressionist this Harold in the beginning of the office very quickly very yes shortcut to Impressionism to it heralded the beginning of this artistic movement so this autumn effect that argent a the 1873 and encompasses all this or these characteristics of early high impressionist works it shows money is interesting in depicting fitting effects of lights the his interest for this change ability of the weather you see this rapidly passing clouds in the sky it looks wonderfully fresh and uncalculated it is a high impressionist work this shows our hotel this is the Paris now the Paris suburb north west of Paris and this is where the money family settled in 1871 when they returned from exile in London and then this little via the Netherlands near in in eighteen in in 1871 and and we're hanging in we've hung it next to another view of our monetary system by money so in fact the man money section of the exhibition are contiguous and we managed to make this this comparison between these two views of Toronto this one time many a year later which shows the moment in his career when when MANET is at his most impressionist it's a painting which shows his very original assimilation of Impressionism you see he turns it into something else it's a larger it's likely larger than the typical canvases that the Impressionists were painting it's it's done with broader longer brushstrokes but it shares with with the impressionist paintings the same attention to to to light and an atmosphere and the two figures depicted here are actually madam money and the money is young son Jean who was seven at the time and says they lived as I said the lead in an Italian and money was just visiting them on that day and that sunny day of spring 1874 the second money in the show is this later view of Amazon of sorry of atiba this time and it was a later of the four paintings by Monet co-owned so in fact he states does not seem to have stretched as far as a - late late works in his increasingly obstructed views of his garden at Giverny this records a trip and when I did to him on the French Riviera in 1888 well of course he was terribly impressed by the specific quality of light by the Mediterranean he was a man from the north he had painted in around Paris in Normandy or in in England or in the Netherlands but nothing had quite prepared him for the shock of the bright Mediterranean sunlight and he paints this wonderful series of of of paintings showing the Mediterranean and then beyond distances of the mountains of the STL and here just a detail to show just many sheer virtuosity and his absolute mastery of of effect you see how in one or two blobs of paint manages to evoke both with the sails flapping in the wind is absolutely extraordinary so don't look at it closely in in the exhibition then Dugga Dugga like money an essential figure of the Impressionist movement transformed a painting with the you you're all familiar with his scenes from Modern Life the entertainers ballerinas scenes from race courses and women at the toilette quite what's at do get a part in terms of his reputation in England in the early 20th century is that his work had been praised by the British public in fact from quite early on there was a predilection for his work here in this country which you know other artists like Suzanne or were not able to enjoy because Duga was very much a painter of figures and he's at relied heavily on drawing and it is something which was very much praised by the British public so probably this you know the fact that there was a predilection for his work in this country and also the fact that he was a very first French living master to have triggered Cocteau's interest means that one of the first purchases made from the quota fund was this early work by the Gala's a young Spartan so on scene on a rather obscure subject matters this is taken from a produc the Greek first century idea Greek biography which shows the how this occurs the Spartan legislature other girls to engage in contests of wrestling so very obscure the kind of subject which would have been exhibited on the walls of the official salon but very much a proto impressionist picture so a typical not characteristic of the gas art and in fact Cocteau himself was very uncertain about this this potential purchase when when he and his friends were considering it as a potential acquisition and he's and I quote him he says I cannot quite make up my mind about it it is stimulating and I appreciate its historical importance but but he is not quite sure as to what decision to make in the end it was bought because it was also quite cheap since as an uncharacteristic work so maybe at this point I should say a bit more about the coffin itself why why it was created by Cocteau because so it was very much because Britain was lagging behind when it came to acquiring examples of impressionist and post-impressionist art for for for the country and it was felt that something had to be to be done and and that there was an urgency to make up for lost time and the other reason why group two went ahead with this idea of setting aside its large sum of money specifically for that purpose is that in fact new galleries were being built at the back of what is now Ted Britain at Milbank's once on the site of an old prison at Mill Bank which was a Milbank penitentiary and this new this new galleries had been paid for by dealers Joseph Devine who was also a great benefactor to the years to the nation and and the construction had started and it was not quite sure what was going to fill them while what we're going to to feature in these galleries there were a few groups of paintings but but like for the lane request and then purchases from the Duga cells which had been made in 1919 but not a modern foreign collection as such so so so this is one of the reasons why Cooke to make this decision of of establishing the quota fund is that a collection had to be shaped quite quite quickly and if possible a collection of a great of great quality and we wanted to illustrate the Venus's exhibition and the role he played as a also as a great benefactor a bit before a few years before Cocteau and and we do so with by showing this small work by the Gershwin his friend Carol Peregrine this this small painting was actually paid for by Devine and presented to the nation in 1916 so I think we can go as far as saying that divins gift pave the way for quarters just of benefaction to the nation a few years later and then another began to show as a woman at the window and which shows the artist experimental technique you see how the artist has as a Duga has and has drained the paint of its oil and and sinned it we start in time to achieve this wonderful translucent effect and then this gorgeous work striking for its extremely and conventional point of view we see as much of the scenery on the stage and and even the rails on which the cows were being brought on the stage and at the same time there is a wonderful effect of artificial light which brings out the vivid pink and yellow flowers on the skirts of the ballerina in the particular luminous transparency of the of the tutus and it's also a painting which kokuto bought it in June 1927 and then the painting had an excellent provenance it had been acquired by British collectors from very early on from as early as 1874 in in Britain now Pissarro so the pistil were very much the arch impression is the only artist of the group who exhibited in all eight of the impressionist exhibition and who also constantly strove to maintain the group's cohesion the cohesion of the whole of the original group while always looking for new talents and inviting younger artists to join and he he went as far as championing the work of Google and then of of Suha and even adopted the hostile for a brief moment in his in his career so in in our section devoted to Pizarro we managed to pair two paintings both cityscapes by this aha so one from Cocteau's private collections this view of of the kids at home dating from a moment in early 1883 when pizarra was staying at at home staying in a hotel which was on this square and overlooking the plus Lafayette but he's you see that he's fascinated by the industrial activity on the banks of the of the River Seine rather than by the wonderful medieval monuments of central who are and then the painting from the court of friend that is now at the National Gallery this pool for Mama another great cityscape really remarkable for its daring technique again here Pissarro is staying in a different hotel this time in central Paris it's at the corner of the hood who oh and and profit Italia and he's looking down on the wet pavement Sanji budva it's unique in Pisa hos earth has been his only night scene and and he's absolutely excelled at rendering the effect of of light on answer on the wet streets and you see how he's fragmented brushstrokes evokes a shiny wet wet pavement and the wonderful halos around here the gas light's range in the line in the middle of the composition so so Pissarro was not just a great painter and a founding member of the impressionist but also a great champion of this new younger artists such as saira whom he invited to exhibit with the with the Impressionists which also precipitated the the dispersion of the original group but but so ha so ha was a very young man who looked extremely promising young artists who would developed a new way of painting who developed with a new art based on on actually a scientifically grounded a method which based on the juxtaposition of dots of pure color which instead of being mixed on the canvas itself were juxtaposed and then blended optically by the eye to create a different color and I'll show you example that's probably going to be a little clearer and also he had basis his idea on his new technique on the idea that complementary color enhance each other but this of course he required great control in his handling of the of the space unlike like the Impressionists so her depicted subjects of modern urban and suburban life but in a far more structure than monumental way here in his early masterpiece basis at Aniyah he's he's depicting a mundane subject but on an incredibly grand scale normally reserved for history painting or mythological paintings is a young workmen who are relaxing during the probably the lunchtime breaks are taking the leisure by the by the river and this is actually it's a painting he he started before he had fully evolved his impression his 20 least his divisionist technique he had been an accomplished draftsman and I think this is very much evident here he creates pictures with an extraordinary sense of of vol with a real sculptural prominence and we know a lot about the circumstances of this the purchase of this painting for the nation by Cocteau and his and his fellow trustees I should say that Cotto had not just given the money for the court of fun but he was also actively engaged in administering it so he had set it up as a trust which was administered by five trustees so himself really taking the lead leading role and the directors of the Tate and of the National Gallery and then - to - to friends of his Michael Sadler and Henry Benton who were also champions of this new painting in in Britain in the 1920s and themselves great collectors so so as a way it worked is that the cúcuta fund trustees would look at paintings on the market and decide whether there were good potential purchases or dealers would come to them and suggest acquisitions here in this case it's 30 more Turner who was one of Coco's advisors alerted caught his attention to this painting being available on the market in Paris it was whispered xfinity been a friend of service and and also very great art critic but a decision had to make it to be made very quickly and usually cooked oh and his trustees would would go themselves would cross a channel and go and check paintings in Paris this time that could not be organized and Percy Morton I wanted an immediate answer and Kudo decided to go ahead with the with the purchase so he took this risk because he was of course engaging a lot of of money which was his but for the for the nation's benefit and in his letter to to the director of the Tate he and I quote him he says that he is quoting I am prepared to accept full responsibility but please support me if you think I did the right thing so there is a very certain of niversity of nervousness in the way in which here it's very aware of having taking a real having taken a risk and of course he did the right thing this is one of the great masterpieces of post-impressionism now for himself so he bought also a large number of paintings by by services Bridget Cobra which is a probably a close up a more accurate example of the of what the division is technique really is you see this idea that color has a greater effect if juxtaposed in dots rather than being mixed on the canvas and any of course it's it's it's a marvelous little saying it's carefully constructed perfectly proportioned and you see how the there's a sense of rhythms in the mass and and this tiny almost proto Bauhaus figures on the on the riverbank another great aha in in Coco's collection this time a portrait of his office mistress Madeline Madeline Knobloch who had also given him a son who died in infancy in fact of the same disease as the one from which Sura himself died this is a very strange work with elements of caricature in editors you see the kind of comical contrast between Madeline's statuesque and voluptuous body and the very dainty and unstable table and and the mirror perched on top of it in in the foreground and it is very strange waves in in on the wallpaper in the air in the background and an interesting addition of the mirror of what was originally a mirror you see this painting has been carefully studied that's a cocktail gallery in in recent years studied in conservation and it was found that the still life of flowers in the upper left of the painting initially showed the self portrait by Sahar and as such the only self-portrait of the artist in his whole career and he that he had later painted it over probably for the sake of propriety this is how the cortos lived with the painting you see the interior assume how so Hume house was a it still stands it sits on 20 Portman Square in the heart of Mayfair one of London's great Georgian interiors built in the 18th century a very very fine house which Dakota moved into in a spring of 1926 and here again it was it may have been why one of the reasons why they assembled this great collection at a rather rapid pace is that they had they had space on their walls and wanted wanted it to look as good as possible they also entertained a lot and they wanted out of the highest level on their wall so this is the front parlor in the ground floor where you see a Suzanne wen hua and the so her young woman patterning herself that Hume house in the early 1930s and then what it's like now and it's now private club so you it's very hard to get access and in one last silver from from cook those private collections a channel at Kathleen Kathleen is a it's very close is in France but very close to the Belgian border it's no-self Kelly's between Kelly and the Belgian border and it is well so has spent the last summer of his life so had I died very young only aged 31 and it's a painting which is remarkable for its very spareness there's nothing there's really nothing much to catch the eye apart from a sound sky and and water and yet it has this incredible dazzling qualities this impression of a vastness and vibration of of light now Renoir so Hanwha is was central to two quarters to the quarters collection I should say that Cocteau collected with his wife who died prematurely in in 1931 but she was Elizabeth Cocteau was also quite involved in the formation of the private in the private collection and and and they they absolutely loved the art of Renoir probably among all founding members of the impression is good maybe the most committed to depicting the human figures in I'm sure you have in mind many central news bio noir and also scenes of conviviality also very nice very perceptive portrait and he was also brilliant he had the brilliant brilliantly freed a technique freed brushwork and and a bright palette and then of you know how his art took a different direction from the 1880s when he was at the moment when he was seeking greater monumentality and turned to the classical tradition of french painting in the last decades of his life this this early-ish landscape by by Renoir was the in fact the earliest Renoir in Cocteau's a collection this is a another high impressionist works almost the quintessential impressionist painting this shows the river sent this time at shadows of further south from onion this is the west of Paris and it was a place which was popular with city dwellers it was also a very fashionable boating site so people would come from Paris on day trips to enjoy this kind of sporting leisure but by the river it's of course it's it's completely delightful it's particularly in reminisce and it you really get a sense of shimmering a sunlight on you know with his reflection on the on the water and and that was both tighter quarters actually late I think it was the later of the late the latest Wenhua acquisition in 1929 and and it was actually they acquired it by exchanging a painting they already owned which was this Matisse a ballerina so it's interesting to see how the taste evolves when they first started to collect they the kudos turned their attention to very much contemporary paintings you know a recent when one of a recent April it mushroom was now long forgotten but were painted kind of cubist landscapes and and then this this is very contemporary 1927 Matisse ballerina which they sent back in in 1929 so a year later to be to to to acquire one was skiff Navin was at the theater one of our own painting both from the Kota fund in August 1923 one of the two earliest purchases made from the Kota fund which again shows Hamas great skill and ease and also his his excitement in depicting modern life he's it's a I think she really excels at renderings a slight apprehension of this very young woman we know from the French title that it is her first formal outing laponia softy and you really get a sense of her of her shyness and and and and being unsure about where she is she's a she's of course closely chaperone but we we were very aware that it is a moment when she's entering grown-up society the other Hanauma which was bought from the cocoa fund was this young woman bathing which is not in the exhibition it is not that we've sent it on loan anywhere it is a reason why we were not able to include it in the show that it is not part of the national collection anymore and here I should explain I should say more about how the court often worked with the court often came a list of artists to be acquired from the from the fund and there was also a special provisions of special clause that any painting acquired could be returned and all swapped if a better example of an impressionist or impressionist work appeared on the market and and this possibility was used on several occasions this was bought in December 1925 and sold passes and the Tate 19 years later in 1944 and and and with proceeds from the sale a an early Matisse and also a Cuba speaker so were required which caused a great outcry because also even though Picasso featured on the list which accompanied the quota fund Kudo had no taste for cubism and it is not the kind of work that he would have himself selected but anyway an interesting an interesting story around this picture then 7wa one of the highlight in the cook toast Renoir collection is of course la la so post image also see at the box again which shows when Numa fascinated by the social ritual of theatres this is a very elegant young couple sitting in a quite squeezed in a theater box and we were very close we're looking at them from very close as if in fact as if we were ourselves looking through opera glasses we know who these people were this is nee nee nee nee Lopez nicknamed fish face who was a professional model in in Paris so she clearly here enjoys looking and being looked at she's almost a kind of fashion figure and in the man just behind her was posed by Edmond who was going to ask brother anymore so it isn't naturally enchanting work you see the variation of pink and flesh tones and and very much you get a sense of the years of pleasure that when were took in depicting flesh and and skin and textures you know creating this refined effects of silk and the fine leather of the of the gloves so he really is a it is an avocation of of life and and of the joy of of living and the painting which cost him a great deal of money his second most expensive painting after the bath at the funny burger and and to give you a sense of to put things in in in proportion see if you add surprise go to paid for this large and what she paid for the path that gives you the whole of the court of fund money so so he was he was really collecting for himself on a different scale all together and this is how how he displayed the work at in the music room at human at Hume House in in one of the salon and then I'm going to show you a picture of the large now in the nozzle domestic interior this time in a 21st century across the Atlantic so this is this is tram Tower and amazingly apparently our colleague at the photo gallery has been told that this is a copy another Hanwha in in include those collections a portrait of voila voila the talented businessman and one of of Renoir's principal dealers after 1900 it was a great connoisseur here's a painting commissioned from wen hua by Wolle himself and then sorry given by Hanwha to valla and then bought from Porto but by Cocteau from voila so very very clear provenance and in fact we know that ruler himself had misunderstood do grandma had voila had believed that this painting would actually joined the National Gallery collection and not the private collection and of course she is shown in very much into both of the connoisseur is assessing this little holding as this little statuette which we know was by his contemporary this gotcha description mayor and then this this so this is a painting it's a very late Renoir painting in in 1918 so immediately before year before horn was death but this is a painting with which the Cocteau started a collection of modern French painting when that was in the in just in 1922 the earliest purchase with a nipple it marshal of sample and it is I think it's typical of Renoir's last creative period which has been much misunderstood and for a time overlooked because it was it's hard to reconcile this late painting which when what did in the in the first two decades of the 20th century which is more experimental attempts at you know more daring painting of the 1870s and and and the GAO in fact I could do guy used to describe this legislate paintings and I think the description is fitting for this work as I quote a cat playing with balls of yarn and I think it's very much the impression you get here and if you look at when one's very free technique we have to to loose the tracks in the exhibition to lose the tracks a usual character widely eccentric I'm sure you know you have images of Tallulah Texas who she had been crippled by two accidents in his youth he was born at at Albee but became famous for the fifteenth bohemian life of Monmouth in in posters and in paintings with wonderful bold lines and no dashes colors so this is this Toulouse Lautrec was a painting acquired from here from the quarter fund in May 1926 and three years later the court about this quite striking work this portrait of Jennifer Hill who was Jennifer Hale was a star performer at the moolah who she was a fantastic dancer who who performed great individuality she was nicknamed the delirious Oh kid and yet here she's you wouldn't assume that you know it's very she looks quite withdrawn she looks older than she was still in her 20s when this was painted and you would never get guess that in this work and yet you get a sense of the biting humor of of Toulouse Lautrec and it is fantastic mastery of past all in terms of the techniques it is actually old paint with with passed on now Suzanne Suzanne again you'll see in the exhibition that Suzanne occupies half a room so it's like a mini exhibition inside the exhibition and it reflects the importance which design health in Cocteau's collection he was described by contemporary critics as a hero of Coco's collection it Suzanne is the artist on which the Cocteau spends spent most money between 1923 and 1937 they acquired 11 paintings five works on papers and also letters late letters by the by Z by Z artists so Suzanne had associated impressionists he had exhibited with them twice but but he was he soon grew dissatisfied with the impressionist art with a kind of intuitive response to light and color and all his life thought you know there is this famous quote about it and saying that he wished to make of Impressionism something solid and durable like the art in in museums but it's absolutely true you know he always wanted to give solidity to his paintings and was always in search of what she called an artistic truth so Suzanne was misunderstood by his contemporaries and later loaded by generations of early twentieth century artists as the precursor of Avenue art but in anyway Goethe the kutis collection very much asserts the preeminence of Suzanne's art with still life's greatest alive great landscapes great figure paintings this extraordinary still life with which was as the first season purchased in 1923 Goethe later describes a moment when he was converted to the art of season it was a kind of religious experience which happened in 1922 when he went to see an exhibition in London at the Burlington Fine Art Club and there he had the revelation of Suzanne by looking at a landscape by the French master on the walls and that triggered his interest in seasons painting & prompted the start of his collection of works by Cezanne so this is an incredibly complex and very artificial composition which ignores the laws of traditional perspective you see it's it's it's a painting of a plaster cast which season had in his studio it's very hard to figure out what's happening in the in the painting at first you quickly realize that in fact you're looking at a painting depicting paintings is this is a actual canvases which are wedged between the table and the wall this is a very interesting way in which the the blue fabric of the painted still life to the left merges with the real fabric of the still life in the foreground but of course it's all painted so the season very much enjoyed this kind of visual games than this another great still life whereas a sense of space in in it is almost sculptural then we have five sorry for landscapes this early farm in Normandy of 1882 again incomparably fresh with a kind of symphony of of greens this remarkable landscape showing the tall trees associated with phones which had before was a provençal manor house on the outskirts of exon province which had been bought by Suzanne's father and where seasoned regularly retreated he very much enjoyed the solitude that Lucia de Buffon had to to offer and here you see his his astonishing techniques small parallel brushed works brushstrokes the way in which he has ordered the composition with this very methodical brushstrokes and and and this is shimmering effect of wine which he evokes is the summer leaves of the trees gently ruffled by the by the wind then one of of seasons great masterpieces like dan see very atypical for Four Seasons production it is not northern France it is not around Terrace and not not his native province but it was painted during a specific trip which the Sun did in July 1896 on the encouragement of his wife and son they went to the year French Alps to add savoir by the like Dan Sheehan and and and it was the kind of landscape that Suzanne encountered there he found very disconcerting at first it was not used to to to toll things but rather to the to the heels of of course onsen and there was something also very new for him in said in the minerality of the pure mountain which he at first struggled to capture and then this resulted in this absolute masterpiece when you you see how Suzanne has managed to bring up the underlying structure and the harmony of the of the landscape in this harmony of blues and and greens and this is a contemporary postcard showing this very site so you are looking at the Chateau de Rana on the opposite bank of the lake then the two paintings bought from the photo fans were as she left by the artist and the and the landscape and and I think I should stress that unlike Google or Google in the 1920s seasons paintings were still regarded as particularly controversial nan was bought at the sale of the gas paintings in 1918 the state trustees refused to show his work even as long-term loans on the walls of the of the museum and and and season very much concentrated the debate about modernism which was taking place in Britain in the early 1920s so Cocteau was also very much on a crusade to get seasons out accepted and validated by the museum authorities and he managed to do so by acquiring from the court of Francis self-portrait of the early 1880s and and of course choosing a self-portrait was what was quite significant it's a great way of imposing an artist in a collection with his own image self image he it was so brilliant it's a small but absolutely brilliant work a very good example of seasons so called constructive strokes which was unified and diagonal strokes of color so acquired in December 1925 and the first painting by Suzanne to enter the national collection so very significant and then that was easy Suzanne was bought this season landscape was bought in January 1926 and in fact buys an even by January 1926 the coat the coat of friend was nearly exhausted and cooked Oh had to give extra money from his own pocket to to enable this purchase and and and see it's hard to believe but even then in 1926 six the Tate and National Gallery directors were still very reluctant towards the art of Suzanne and it is something that Cocteau had to personally impose season and and and and these two purchases now for himself he bought the man with a pipe in October 1927 and the Endicott players so of course one of these five compositions by season painted in the 1890s showing men playing cards and one of Suzanne's most iconic and powerful works and a painting which cooked oh very much wanted to acquire except it had a very very high price tag and at some points as the price was so high that he even considered selling the lacked and see that we were just looking at to be able to make this purchase and any Andy he didn't have to resort to that and was able to to add this to his collection so it was his second most expensive season after the Sandvik twelve which unfortunately could not come to this exhibition and that's how he lived with with the salon you see in here in the dining room in the back parlor which he used that as his dining room this is I must go faster but this is the first catalog of photos collection which he cooked up privately funded and and and it was privately printed in 1934 and the first record of this extraordinary collection that he and his wife had assembled in the 1920s early 30s and this is a copy we have in the exhibition was was given by Cocteau himself to the National Gallery in 1934 and with Van Gogh is also key to the to the story he van Gogh of course had a very brief and nonetheless prolific career he was active as an artist for less than ten years you all very familiar with his work which evolved from early Dutch works you know Donnie painted in kind of earthy tones to he's very intense and high with intense works with high kid colors and very expressive brush work of the eighteen late 1880s and and this is the first that was the first van Gogh to have been bought from the gotough and in 1923 in October 1923 and as such the first van Gogh to enter a national the national collection in this country painted in May 1889 on this is just outside here the asylum which van Gogh had entered voluntarily in May 1889 he had suffered repeats mental breakdowns and and was seeking help of course it's it's one of his most energetic and moving canvases it's it's a moment in his career which where he is absolutely at the zenith of his in the development of his art and and you see here how he has constructed forms out of this kind of halasana hallucinatory spirals and and valued in in the sky it's as if there's a strong wind of the South you know the Mistral is putting everything into movement with this intense colors and then this a postman ghulam already 99 was actually bought from the Kota fund in December 23 that was in December 1923 it was a sort of landmark event in the story of Van Gogh reception in this country that was the first monographic show of Van Gogh work organized at the Leicester gallery so very close to here and and the court often trustees of course were very interested in the exhibition as they say so in it the possibility of acquiring work works for the collection and they had been warned that van Gogh's sunflowers would not be available because the painting had were still with the family and and van Gogh's sister-in-law was completely opposed to the idea of selling it she was too emotionally attached to the painting to even consider parting with it so the court often trustees bought two works as a chair rangos chair which now hangs up stairs and postman hoola they both was the second purchase but very soon after in fact in the in the next week or two after having settled the purchase cuto started to have second shot second thoughts about it and after gain whether madame van gogh would would finally agree to to to sell the painting to to sell sells sunflowers and enemy and she agreed very reluctantly but she did and i quote her she said i felt as if i could not bear to separate from the picture but it is a sacrifice for the sake of vincent glory so this is a story of the acquisition of our very own sunflowers which of course has become a destination work at the national gallery and for that reason could not be included in the exhibition because we very much wanted to for them to remain a freely accessible by the by the public then nearly done by googa googa googa of course had a tumultuous life he was a sailor stockbroker and painted this this very experiment from very early on experimental works with build and invent his compositions whether he was working in Britain in the 1880s or later in the Caribbean or or in Tahiti where he where he in the end she died and see a gue gun which the keuken was very important and and and best loved the best novel artist by by SIA much loved by the Cocteau say this is actually this work from 1899 and painted in Brittany during Gauguin's third extended stay in Brittany was the first acquisition of a work by post impressionist artists by Samuel Cocteau in early 1923 and he made his purchase at the same time as these basses attained at Tahiti which so but at the same time as the bottom landscape but then sold by basalt again by Cocteau when he later you know was acquired to was able to acquire what I'm sure he would have what had would have been considered as greater example of greater examples of gogans Tahitian work so this the televi ohio's a dream dates from a googans second Tahitian stay and you see it to two women watching over a sleeping a child and it was to add to the interest of the painting at the time it was believed that this canvas had a biographical element because it was so to represent Google's own Hut his own dwellings in in Tahiti but in fact what we know now is that all these carved reliefs were entirely imagined by by zrt so this is it it's a it's a fascinating work it's enigmatic it's captivating and and and the dream you know it's titled La Rioja which means the dream I think reinforces this this particular aspects of of the of the work then another highly evocative painting is Google Nevermore with its title borrowed from Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven where this which which has this kind of as a like motifs in evermore in the poem itself and and and and Google very much intended is painting as as mysterious and gave very little cruise forests to understand what is really going on here he said that the bird I quote a bird of the the bird of the devil is keeping watch it of course it harks back to the great tradition of the reclining nude a bit but it it brings you know with with Google's very own touch with its distinctive baldness and any strongly decorative of course which is incredible and jewel-like colors and the final artist in the exhibition is the final section is devoted to burn off so who was not not quite caught of contemporary but but not far so very complex artist who who had been quite radical in his news and he's 1890s he was one of the founding members of the Nabi group and then later in the first decade of the 20th century had adopted a kind of late impressionist style at a time when Impressionism was starting to become outmoded but he actually turned it into something else and and and the two there's a painting which the court of the quiet photo private collection is is a I think it's quite typical of this of banas more impressionist techniques it shows Vernon a sort of the house where the burners lived at at that time which was just a few kilometers from from giovani well when money lived at at the time and and the painting which the court cooked aboard for the nation which was his later this later work the table so very striking painting again showing marked the artist wife who's looking slightly elusive she's actually feeding a little dog you can just see the dog to the left of the painting expecting his his food it's truly radiant with his striking white sea as a white area of the tablecloth on which this remnants of Avila room are arranged and and and and you see how Bona has varied the viewpoint you know for instance is his basket with fish and a lemon in it in the foreground is observed from above where Althea the fruit bowl just in front of math is observed from the four from the side this is a kind of liberties that Bona was was taking and something that cooked oh who was a great admirer of season would have found very appealing so a real masterpiece by Bona and the most contemporary purchase done from the cocoa fund in December 1925 so it's a painting which was both just a few months after its completion so it would have been regarded at the time as incredibly contemporary now this and other the other purchases from the fund were first exhibited in June 1926 in the newly opened modern foreign galleries at the Tate so open in great pomp here and great pomp and ceremony ceases King George the fifth at the opening ceremony itself so do Devine is the man standing right to the left of the painting looking straight at us and Cocteau is also there as you would expect he's he's to the right of the painting sitting to the right of the lady in red in the foreground and turning his back at Earth's in his usual very modest manner and these are the new so this is what the news is new canvas looks like when they first opened in in June 1926 and they say they really provided the public with with and recent unprecedented exposure to Impressionism and post-impressionism so so what we hope is that this exhibition is a fitting tribute to Cocteau he at the National Gallery now that the coastal gallery has closed it though as something we very much wanted to highlight is the particular resonance of kotas name here at the National Gallery and and we hope that the exhibition gives you a chance to remind yourself of this very great contribution he made not just to see to the national collection but also in the larger sense to the widening of the appreciation of of the so called new painting in this country so thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: The National Gallery

Views: 42,061

Keywords: courtauld gallery, Impressionists, Impressionism, artist, exhibition

Id: G3AXEndd2m4

Length: 73min 52sec (4432 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018