Tuesday 12 February 2013

Fernand Pelez - Grimaces et Misere

After the Musee D'Orsay and the Orangerie, I went to the Petit Palais. It is a lovely place, empty apart from me, the guards, and a group of primary school kids (who were being taught about the different supports you can paint on. They were about six years old!). The building itself is lovely, with huge ceiling decorations, a japanese garden and cafe as well as a wide ranging collection of artworks.

It has a fascinating (big) room full of portraits painted around 1900 - the stuff that is generally considered a bit boring, but very inspiring and useful to us painters.

But the highlight for me was the above painting. It stopped me in my tracks. It has been quite while since that has happened - partly as I have read a lot of art books, so most things I have seen before. This I never have.

Nor have I heard of Fernand Pelez and judging by his wikipedia page, few other people have, either. His other couple of paintings on show, although well painted, were not as strong - but I will be looking out for his work again.

(Have a look at the google images here for some more close-up looks. Totally worth it.

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