Antonio de La Gandara
Encyclopedia
Antonio de la Gándara was a French painter, pastel
list and draughtsman.
, France
, but his father was of Spanish
ancestry, born in San Luis Potosi
, Mexico
, and his mother was from England
. La Gandara's talent was strongly influenced by both cultures. At only 15 years of age, Gandara was admitted as a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme
and Cabanel at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
. Soon, he was recognized by the jury of the 1883 Salon des Champs-Elysées
, who singled out the first work he ever exhibited: a portrait of Saint Sebastian.
Less than ten years later, young Gandara had become one of the favourite artists of the Paris elite. His models included Countess Greffulhe, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg, the Princess of Chimay, the Prince de Polignac, the Prince de Sagan, Charles Leconte de Lisle, Paul Verlaine
, Leonor Uriburu de Anchorena, Sarah Bernhardt
, Romaine Brooks
, Jean Moreas
, Winnaretta Singer
, and Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau
(seen below, and more famously portrayed by John Singer Sargent
in his painting Madame X
). Influenced by Chardin
, his unique skill is demonstrated in his portraits, in a simplicity with the finest detail, or in the serenity of his scenes of the bridges, parks, and streets of Paris
.
Gandara illustrated a small number of publications, including Les Danaïdes by Camille Mauclair
. With James McNeill Whistler
, Jean-Louis Forain
, and Yamamoto
, La Gandara illustrated Les Chauves-Souris ("The Bats") by the French poet Robert de Montesquiou
. The book, published in 1893, has become a rare collector's item. The first exhibition of Gandara's work organised in New York by Durand-Ruel
in 1898 was a major success and confirmed the painter as one of the masters of his time. Major newspapers and magazines routinely reproduced his portraits, several of which made the front page of publications like the fashionable Le Figaro
magazine. Gandara participated in the most important exhibitions in Paris, Brussels
, Berlin
, Dresden
, Barcelona
and Saragossa.
One of the most talented artists of the Belle Epoque, La Gandara died on 30 June 1917, and was interred in Père Lachaise, Paris, France. Although his fame faded rapidly after his death, growing interest in the 19th century saw Gandara regain popularity as a key witness to the art of his time, not only through his canvases, but also as the model chosen by the novelists Jean Lorrain
and Marcel Proust
, and through the anecdotes of his own life narrated by Edmond de Goncourt
, Georges-Michel, and Montesquiou.
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
list and draughtsman.
Biography
He was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but his father was of Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
ancestry, born in San Luis Potosi
San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and his mother was from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. La Gandara's talent was strongly influenced by both cultures. At only 15 years of age, Gandara was admitted as a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.-Life:Jean-Léon Gérôme was born...
and Cabanel at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
. Soon, he was recognized by the jury of the 1883 Salon des Champs-Elysées
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
, who singled out the first work he ever exhibited: a portrait of Saint Sebastian.
Less than ten years later, young Gandara had become one of the favourite artists of the Paris elite. His models included Countess Greffulhe, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg, the Princess of Chimay, the Prince de Polignac, the Prince de Sagan, Charles Leconte de Lisle, Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, Leonor Uriburu de Anchorena, Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
, Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard , was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued palette dominated by the color gray...
, Jean Moreas
Jean Moréas
Jean Moréas , was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic, who wrote mostly in the French language but also in Greek during his youth.-Background:...
, Winnaretta Singer
Winnaretta Singer
Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac was an American musical patron and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune.-Early Life and Family:...
, and Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau
Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau
Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau was a Parisian socialite, artists' model and an American expatriate. She is perhaps most widely known as the subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Portrait of Madame X.-Family:...
(seen below, and more famously portrayed by John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
in his painting Madame X
Portrait of Madame X
Madame X or Portrait of Madame X is the informal title of a portrait painting by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau. The model was an American expatriate who married a French banker, and became notorious in Parisian high society...
). Influenced by Chardin
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was an 18th-century French painter. He is considered a master of still life, and is also noted for his genre paintings which depict kitchen maids, children, and domestic activities...
, his unique skill is demonstrated in his portraits, in a simplicity with the finest detail, or in the serenity of his scenes of the bridges, parks, and streets of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Camille Mauclair
Séverin Faust , better known by his pseudonym Camille Mauclair, was a French poet, novelist, biographer, travel writer, and art critic....
. With James McNeill Whistler
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
, Jean-Louis Forain
Jean-Louis Forain
Jean-Louis Forain was a French Impressionist painter, lithographer, watercolorist and etcher.-Overview:Forain was born in Reims, Marne but at age eight, his family moved to Paris. He began his career working as a caricaturist for several Paris journals including Le Monde Parisien and Le rire...
, and Yamamoto
Hosui Yamamoto (painter)
, artist, also sometimes known as Yamamoto Tamenosuke, was born in Mino province, Japan. He first trained in the Nanga style before studying Western painting with Charles Wirgman and Goseda Horyu and under Antonio Fontanesi. Yamamoto then went to Paris, where he remained for over ten years and...
, La Gandara illustrated Les Chauves-Souris ("The Bats") by the French poet Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou
Marie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac , was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, art collector and dandy....
. The book, published in 1893, has become a rare collector's item. The first exhibition of Gandara's work organised in New York by Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel was a French art dealer who is associated with the Impressionists. He was one of the first modern art dealers who provided support to his painters with stipends and solo exhibitions....
in 1898 was a major success and confirmed the painter as one of the masters of his time. Major newspapers and magazines routinely reproduced his portraits, several of which made the front page of publications like the fashionable Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
magazine. Gandara participated in the most important exhibitions in Paris, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
and Saragossa.
One of the most talented artists of the Belle Epoque, La Gandara died on 30 June 1917, and was interred in Père Lachaise, Paris, France. Although his fame faded rapidly after his death, growing interest in the 19th century saw Gandara regain popularity as a key witness to the art of his time, not only through his canvases, but also as the model chosen by the novelists Jean Lorrain
Jean Lorrain
Jean Lorrain , born Paul Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school....
and Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, and through the anecdotes of his own life narrated by Edmond de Goncourt
Edmond de Goncourt
Edmond de Goncourt , born Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt, was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt.-Biography:...
, Georges-Michel, and Montesquiou.
Sources
- Xavier Mathieu, "Antonio de La Gandara - Un témoin de la Belle Epoque", 308 pp, Edition Librairie des Musées, 2011
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, « Entre mondanité et mécénat — les avatars d'une relation, Robert de Montesquiou et Antonio de La Gandara », Revue de la Bibliothèque nationale n° 25, 2007, p.54-62.
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, Antonio de La Gandara (1861-1917), naissance d'un portraitiste mondain. L'exposition chez Durand-Ruel, avril 1893, conférence à la Société de l'histoire de l'art français, présentée à l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris, le 18 novembre 2006, à paraître.
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, « Un intermezzo lithographique — les estampes d'Antonio de La Gandara », Nouvelles de l'estampe, n° 207, juillet-septembre 2006, pp. 23-36.
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, « De l'atelier de Gérôme au cabaret du Chat noir. Les années de formation d'Antonio de La Gandara (1861-1917) », Le Vieux Montmartre, nouvelle série, fascicule n°75, octobre 2005, pp. 12-36.
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, Antonio de La Gandara, Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, Leipzig-Munich, K.G.Saur Verlag, vol.49
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, "Antonio de La Gandara", La Tribune de l'art.
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, Portraits de Société, Paris, Citadelles et Mazenod, 2007. Prix du cercle Montherlant de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2008.
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, The Society Portrait, Thames & Hudson, Londres et Vendôme Press, New York, 2007.
- Gabriel Badea-Päun: Antonio de La Gandara, sa vie, son œuvre (1861-1917), catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint et dessiné, thèse de doctorat sous la direction du M. le professeur Bruno Foucart, Paris-IV Sorbonne, 2005, 3 volumes, 881 pages.
External links
- Site officiel d'antonio de la gandara at www.lagandara.fr