Moonlight in Versailles
Oil on canvas representing an embraced couple, seen from the back, observing the “moonlight in Versailles’’ gardens. The man may be distinguished thanks to his top hat whereas the woman wears a white dress and a charming round hat with purple ribbons. The back-lighting moon colours the scene with strange tones in a dominant of night blues, brown and green: the white dress of the young lady reflects shades of pale blue, while the frock coat of the man turns into intense black. The pronounced outlining of the shapes in a very graphic and synthetic way is typical of the artist’s painting before the war.
Signed: « Bernard B. de Monvel » on the lower right.
Circa: 1910 on the lower right.
Dimensions :
Height seen of the canvas: 21 in. Width seen of the canvas: 19 ¼ in.
Height with the frame: 27 ½ in. Width with the frame:26 ½ in.
Remarks:
Son of the children illustrator Maurice Boutet de Monvel, Bernard receives an artistic education under Luc-Olivier Merson and Jean Dampt’s patronage, completed by a journey with a glass painter. His first artworks borrow the etching technique, which meets his taste for simplification of lines. Exhibiting from 1903 in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Boutet de Monvel quickly becomes the dandy painter known by all the high society, getting his inspiration from the way of life of his contemporaries and also the favourite illustrator of numerous magazines. Sent to Morocco during the First World War, he paints the city of Fez with reduced colour’s range, keeping his attention focused on composition; his synthetic mind, thanks to a geometrical approach of volumes, enables him to reveal Moroccan’s inhabitants and landscapes in an unique and unseen way. Back in Paris in 1919, he purifies his style even more and lightens his touch, in perfect accordance with the Art Deco style appearing at that time and becomes the most fashionable portrait painter of the Années folles. From 1926, his fame spreads to New York where he regularly travels until his tragic accident in 1949.
