RENÉ ROUSSEAU-DECELLE (LA ROCHE-SUR-YON 1881-1964 PRÉFAILLES) - photo 1
RENÉ ROUSSEAU-DECELLE (LA ROCHE-SUR-YON 1881-1964 PRÉFAILLES) - photo 2
RENÉ ROUSSEAU-DECELLE (LA ROCHE-SUR-YON 1881-1964 PRÉFAILLES) - photo 3

RENÉ ROUSSEAU-DECELLE (LA ROCHE-SUR-YON 1881-1964 PRÉFAILLES)

Lot 43
11.06.2025 00:00UTC +01:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1437179
Lot 43 | RENÉ ROUSSEAU-DECELLE (LA ROCHE-SUR-YON 1881-1964 PRÉFAILLES)
Estimate value
€ 70 000 – 100 000
RENÉ ROUSSEAU-DECELLE (LA ROCHE-SUR-YON 1881-1964 PRÉFAILLES)
Une répétition générale à Maisons-Laffitte, chez M. le comte Robert de Clermont-Tonnerre
signé et daté 'R Rousseau-Decelle / 1912' (en bas, à droite)
huile sur toile, sur sa toile d'origine, sans cadre
145 x 261,2 cm (57 1/16 x 102 7/8 in.)




Provenance

Collection de l'artiste ;
Puis par descendance dans la famille.



Literature

C. Le Sexxe, 'Aux Salons du Grand-Palais', Le Ménéstrel : journal de musique, 8 juin 1912, 78e année, 23, p. 178.
C. Saunier, 'Le théâtre aux Salons', Le Théâtre, juillet 1912, 326, p. 23, reproduit en noir et blanc p. 19.
L. Tider-Toutant, 'Le peintre Rousseau-Decelle', Le Pays d'Ouest, 10 février 1913, 3e année, 3, p. 70.
J. Perocheau, 'Rousseau-Decelle, un peintre vendéen à Paris', in A. Dary et al, René Rousseau-Decelle, [cat. exp.], La Roche-sur-Yon, 1988, pp. 8 et 42, sous le n°28.



Exhibited

Paris, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Salon des artistes français, 1912, n°1623.



Further details

RENÉ ROUSSEAU-DECELLE (1881-1964), UNE RÉPÉTITION GÉNÉRALE À MAISONS-LAFFITTE, CHEZ M. LE COMTE ROBERT DE CLERMONT-TONNERRE, OIL ON CANVAS, UNLINED, SIGNED AND DATED (LOWER RIGHT), UNFRAMED

The painter René Rousseau-Decelle (1881-1964) was one of a generation of artists who saw the emergence of the new art of photography and embraced its possibilities. He explored the possibilities of this new technology to produce this fashionable group painting. Having studied under Bouguereau (1825-1909), and having a solid academic background, he certainly did not need photography as a crutch. However, previously unpublished photographs discovered in the artist's family home, which directly relate to the these large-scale canvases (lots 42 and 43), have shed light on the painter's creative process. Various famous personalities who appear in this documentary canvas seem to have first been photographed by the artist.

The figure to the left of the composition (dressed in a pink dress with black ribbons) is most likely Madame Alice Clairville (1882-1966) in deep conversation with a person who may be the journalist Pierre Lafitte (1872-1938) wearing a top hat. This same lady appears among the photographs found in the painter's archives (Fig. 1). Similarly, the dancer Stacia Napierkoska (1891-1945), a future director and pioneer of the cinema pioneer, seated in black in the foreground, with a white parasol and dark hat adorned with pink flowers, also appears in the painter's photographic archives, striking the same pose as in the painted composition (Fig. 2).

Thanks to the written press of the time, which widely reported this impressive painting when it was exhibited at the 1912 Salon, we can identify most of the guests of Count Robert de Clermont-Tonnerre (1851-1929), shown himself in the centre of the composition behind Madame de Fraivelles seated in red. Several actresses gathered for the performance in the charming Clermont-Tonnerre pavilion, which was unfortunately destroyed in the 1980s (Fig. 3). On the porch are actresses Gaby de Boissy (1884-1976) and Gabrielle Dorziat (1880-19179), both dressed in white. Behind the Count stand two men also wearing top hats, the novelist André de Fouquières (1874-1959) and the Belgian journalist Francis de Croisset (1877-1937). Gathered around the aforementioned dancer, Stacia Napierkoska, seated at the front in black, is the actress Nelly Cormon (1877-1942) in an elegant purple chiffon dress, and Gabrielle Robinne (1886-1980), also an actress, attentive to the words of the art critic Fernand Nozière (1874-1931), a great admirer of Symbolist and Rosicrucian artists. Finally, on the far right of the composition, identifiable by her tiny waist, is the whimsical Mademoiselle Polaire (1874-1939), a caf'conc' dancer as she was then known, also the subject of works by Lautrec (1864-1901) or La Gandara (1861-1917). Described as an ‘epileptic rubber girl’ for her frenetic, frenzied dancing style, she held the Guinness record for the thinnest waist in history: 33 centimetres!

This elegant gathering, immortalised in the artist's vivid colours, evokes the cultured and unique society that made the Paris of the Belle Époque so famous. It was the height of a society of whimsical elites in a world that would unfortunately soon be turned upside down by the conflicts to come.
Applied technique:Oil on canvas
Art style:Old Masters
Genre:Genre art, Portrait
Place of origin:Western Europe, France, Europe
Auction house category:Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, Paintings
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