Isidro Nonell - Gypsies

Lot description

ISIDRO NONELL Barcelona 1872 - 1911 Gypsies. 1897 Mixed media (fregit) Signed and dated Measurements 443 x 290 mm This is one of Nonell's famous fregits, from the series of a dozen drawings of gypsies that the artist made in 1897 and exhibited at the Salon des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1898. In a letter that the artist sent to the art critic Raimon Casellas on February 26, 1898, he speaks of this series, with which he claims to feel more satisfied than the cretins he had presented at the Salon des Beaux-Arts the previous year and which were enthusiastically received by the French public and critics. In the end, only eight of these twelve drawings of Gypsies were exhibited at the 1898 Salon, although it is very unlikely that this was one of those selected, since the titles of those exhibited do not seem to coincide with the theme of the drawing in question (Jeune gitane, Jeunes filles gitanes, Gitane fumant, Suicide d'un gitano, Gitano fou, Gitanos voleurs, Gitano assassin, and Ménage gitano). In any case, there is no doubt that the present drawing belongs to this series of drawings, which the French critic Désiré Louis described in the newspaper L'Aurore, linking them to Goya and Japanese art: "Gypsies and Gypsies, graceful and picturesque, sinister or joyful like Goya's. Their strange and curious individuality clearly expresses the contortions of the body, the agitated and gesticulating attitudes that recall the techniques of the Japanese masters." We thank Glòria Escala, expert in Nonell's work, for her help in cataloging this work. Bibliography: - Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Catalog illustré des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture et gravure, exposed au Champ-de-Mars le 1er Mai 1898. Paris, E. Bernard et Cie., 1898, p. XXXIX, no. cat. 1724-1731. - Louis, Désire; «Les Salons de 1898. Le dessin et la gravure». L'Aurore, May 31, 1898, p. 3 (translated from French)