66. Red Summer Hat [1886.–1892.]
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66. Red Summer Hat [1886.–1892.]
1855, Cavtat - 1922, Prag, Češka
Estimate:
EUR 15.000 - 25.000
Sold post auction
EUR 17.000
oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm, signed lower right, in black, "Paul Andrez"
Research information
The work is accompanied by the expert opinion of Igor Zidić. We thank the Bukovac House, director Ivan Kušelj and senior curator Helena Puhara for researching and writing the text for the work Red Summer Hat by Vlaho Bukovac.
PROVENANCE
Dorotheum auction "Paintings of the 19th Century", 02.05.2023.
The painting signed by Vlaho Bukovac under the pseudonym Paul Andrez paradigmatically shows the position of the artist between academically grounded, representative art and market-oriented, pleasing painting practices. The motif of a salon beauty, typical for this type of production, met the expectations of the audience prone to more legible iconography and the decorative function of the picture. The pseudonym Paul Andrez functions as a strategy for Bukovac that allows him to preserve his reputation within his own artistic expression, while opening access to a market that preferred genres of light aesthetics.
However, his painting skills are recognizable here as well. The way he builds the landscape background and shapes floral motifs, with a free and lively brushstroke that creates shimmering atmospheric effects, testifies to a master who remains faithful to a high level of painting even in lighter themes.
In the picture we see a young woman in nature, dressed in a low-cut dress in pastel tones, with emphasized white ruffles and a large red hat. Her hand in a black glove reaches out to a flower, and the whole figure appears extremely coquettish.
This type of display belongs to the iconography of the salon beauty, a motif that was extremely popular in commercial art at that time, often reproduced in lithographs and illustrations, and represents a typified depiction of a woman as a decorative and erotically coded character, devoid of deep personality.
Despite this stylistic and iconographical belonging, the basic characteristics of Bukovac's handwriting are recognized in the picture. They are manifested in a free and dynamic treatment of greenery and a pronounced sense for atmosphere, light effects and coloristic relations.
The works signed with the name Paul Andrez testify to the layered nature of Bukovac's opus and reveal an artist who knew how to adapt his own handwriting to the taste of the wider audience, without losing the feeling for color and atmosphere. Although they differ from his key achievements, such pictures contribute to understanding the wider cultural and market dynamics of the late 19th century.
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