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Lot Essay
Brame & Lorenceau, Paris, have confirmed the authenticity of this work which will be included in the forthcoming digital catalogue critique on the artist, currently under preparation.
In 1880 and 1881, at the urging of his friend, Edgar Degas, Raffaëlli exhibited in the Impressionist exhibition despite having little affinity with the movement. Even though his work was for the most part either overlooked or not understood within the context of the exhibition, not everyone found Raffaëlli’s singularity within the Impressionist exhibitions undesirable. Indeed, Raffaëlli’s inclusion in the 1881 exhibition virtually upstaged the works of those artists who had helped found the new movement and regarded themselves as bona fide Impressionists; their protests against Raffaëlli’s inclusion fuelled a growing rift within the group that eventually led to its dissolution in 1886.
In the early 1890s, Raffaëlli produced numerous street scenes of the French capital, many of which were exhibited at the Salon. The present painting depicts the Place Monge, a tree-lined square in the Latin Quarter of the city which serves as an outdoor stage for the artist, upon which the city’s elite and fashionable play out a timeless pantomime. The combination of the red-trousered soldiers and the small children in their red-ribboned costumes, appear borrowed from a Manet portrait.
In 1880 and 1881, at the urging of his friend, Edgar Degas, Raffaëlli exhibited in the Impressionist exhibition despite having little affinity with the movement. Even though his work was for the most part either overlooked or not understood within the context of the exhibition, not everyone found Raffaëlli’s singularity within the Impressionist exhibitions undesirable. Indeed, Raffaëlli’s inclusion in the 1881 exhibition virtually upstaged the works of those artists who had helped found the new movement and regarded themselves as bona fide Impressionists; their protests against Raffaëlli’s inclusion fuelled a growing rift within the group that eventually led to its dissolution in 1886.
In the early 1890s, Raffaëlli produced numerous street scenes of the French capital, many of which were exhibited at the Salon. The present painting depicts the Place Monge, a tree-lined square in the Latin Quarter of the city which serves as an outdoor stage for the artist, upon which the city’s elite and fashionable play out a timeless pantomime. The combination of the red-trousered soldiers and the small children in their red-ribboned costumes, appear borrowed from a Manet portrait.