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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Van Rysselberghe catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Pascal de Sadeleer and Olivier Bertrand.
Around the turn of the century, Van Rysselberghe began to abandon Divisionism, turning instead toward more emphatic handling and a less divided touch. At the same time, his close friendship with Signac, founded on their shared artistic ideals, began to wane. In a letter to Signac dated 1902, Van Rysselberghe wrote, "While I share some of your ways of seeing, I don't share all of them" (quoted in M.F. Bocquillon, "Signac and Van Rysselberghe, The Story of a Friendship, 1887-1907," Apollo, no. 436, June 1998, p. 17). Five years later, the Belgian painter declared, "I am moving farther and farther away from that way of seeing--let's say understanding--painting, insofar as I ever felt it in this way" (quoted in ibid., p. 17). Their argument came to an end in March of 1909, with a final letter from Van Rysselberghe to Signac: "In writing these lines I do not wish to prolong a discussion which I would regret seeing come to an unhappy conclusion as much as you" (quoted in ibid., p. 18).
Van Rysselberghe moved to Saint-Clair on the Côte d'Azur in 1911, the year the present work was painted, and built a house near his brother Octave and his friend Henri Edmond Cross. Although his early divisionist technique had given way to a freer, less rigorous style which made use of looser and more varied brushstroke, around this time Van Rysselberghe's work began to display a much greater sensitivity to light and atmospheric effects. In the present lot, his virtuoso handling of light can be seen particularly in the subtle reflections in the polished wooden tabletop and the glass vase.
Around the turn of the century, Van Rysselberghe began to abandon Divisionism, turning instead toward more emphatic handling and a less divided touch. At the same time, his close friendship with Signac, founded on their shared artistic ideals, began to wane. In a letter to Signac dated 1902, Van Rysselberghe wrote, "While I share some of your ways of seeing, I don't share all of them" (quoted in M.F. Bocquillon, "Signac and Van Rysselberghe, The Story of a Friendship, 1887-1907," Apollo, no. 436, June 1998, p. 17). Five years later, the Belgian painter declared, "I am moving farther and farther away from that way of seeing--let's say understanding--painting, insofar as I ever felt it in this way" (quoted in ibid., p. 17). Their argument came to an end in March of 1909, with a final letter from Van Rysselberghe to Signac: "In writing these lines I do not wish to prolong a discussion which I would regret seeing come to an unhappy conclusion as much as you" (quoted in ibid., p. 18).
Van Rysselberghe moved to Saint-Clair on the Côte d'Azur in 1911, the year the present work was painted, and built a house near his brother Octave and his friend Henri Edmond Cross. Although his early divisionist technique had given way to a freer, less rigorous style which made use of looser and more varied brushstroke, around this time Van Rysselberghe's work began to display a much greater sensitivity to light and atmospheric effects. In the present lot, his virtuoso handling of light can be seen particularly in the subtle reflections in the polished wooden tabletop and the glass vase.