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"The Little Star of Aragon" by Auguste Breal

$15,000List Price

About the Item

Auguste Breal French, 1875-1938 “The Little Star of Aragon” Oil on canvas Signed and dated ‘Aug Breal, Seville, 1911’ lower right 24 by 16 in. w/frame 38 by 30 in. Auguste Breal was the son of the renowned philologist Michel Breal and first studied Hindustani. He was brought up in a highly intellectual environment as his father was considered the master of semantics. Some of his father’s friends included the distinguished Ernest Renan and Marcelin Berthelot. Auguste Breal was closely connected through his wife with the English Strachey family. He became friends with Simon Bussy and Henri Matisse. Breal offered to fix Matisse up with drawing pupils as he had done two years earlier in London for the promising artist Simon Bussy whose new wife Dorothy Strachey had been one of the students drummed up by Breal. Breal’s wife Louise made a point of inviting the Matisses to dinner. Brilliant, erudite, infinitely resourceful he had begun by following in the footsteps of his father. He studied oriental languages at Cambridge University. He was destined for a brilliant academic career until he threw it over to join Moreau’s studio. Some of Auguste Breal’s colleagues included Andre Gide, Marcel Schwob and Jean Paulhan who made part of a new generation of authors who traveled and recreated themselves as authors. Breal himself led an erratic life as a painter as he was considered more of a professional writer than a painter. He wrote an important study of Velazquez and Cheminements a captivating account of his travels from the Pyrenees to Andalusia. He also wrote on the works of Rembrant as well as illustrated Gabriel d’Aubarede’s L’Ingrat (The Ingrate). Auguste Breal studied painting with Gustave Moreau. He exhibited a full length portrait of Andre Salmon at the Salon d”Automne in 1907. He was a frequent visitor to Spain and spent several years in Seville. During his time in Seville Breal discovered the richness of Spanish culture specifically of Andalusia songs and flamingo dancing. Breal was the only one of Matisse’s friends to witness the full extent of his distress in Spain, who had good reason to be sympathetic. Breal had left his own wife behind in Paris and was living as a married man with a Spanish woman called Carmen Balbuena. Breal was known in Seville as Don Augusto. Don Augusto struck Matisse as enviably carefree. It was at Breal’s studio in the summer of 1910 where Matisse spent time nursing himself back to health. Matisse liked Carmen and approved of the simplicity and directness with which she treated Breal and responded to his paintings. But Matisse was profoundly shocked by the way the broadminded Breals had managed to dismantle their marriage and tear their family apart. Matisse left Seville for Madrid afterwards upon his eventual return to Paris. This painting by August Breal titled “the Little Star of Aragon” could be an aristocratic figure from the city of Aragon. The title “star of Aragon” is linked historically to royalty and Katherine of Aragon who was the Queen of Henry VIII. I believe the portrait could be of Carmen herself as she had a profound influence on Breal at this stage of his life. In 1910 and 1911 Breal exhibited Spanish landscapes and further exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Independants in 1931 and 1932.

Dimensions:
Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)Depth: 3.5 in (8.89 cm)
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
Early 20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Circa 1911
Condition:
Very Good.
Seller Location:
Hillsborough, CA
Reference Number:
Seller: Art B991stDibs: U110513909312

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