8/11/24 – Acquisitions – Toulouse, Musée des Augustins – Closed museums fortunately do not remain inactive and the Toulouse institution headed for two years by Laure Dalon (see the news item from 9/16/22) could certainly not miss these two attractive studies for the decorations of the Salle des Illustres du Capitole offered at Bouvet & Associés on February 21. Purchased for the museum by the Cercle des Mécènes des Augustins, immediately offered, these two works were presented at the Capitole de Toulouse at the beginning of the summer in the presence of elected officials.
- 1. Paul Gervais (1859-1944)
Apollo and the Artsstudy for a ceiling of the Salle des Illustres in Toulouse, 1897
Oil on canvas with squaring – 110 x 120 cm
Toulouse, Musée des Augustins
Photo : Daniel Martin
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See the image on his page
The first of these, acquired for €4,800 hammer, prepares the decor for a beautiful ceiling located at the northern end of this sumptuous gallery, directly above the immense composition by Benjamin-Constant showing the arrival of the Pope Urban II in the city (see article). The comparison between the sketch (ill. 1) then the final work (ill. 2) allows us to see it as a final step before completion because all the elements are already well in place. An excellent decorator, Paul Gervais from Toulouse trained at the School of Fine Arts in his hometown then joined the workshop of Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris but took an essential part in the decorations of the Capitol – where the Wedding Room was even today been renamed in his name – where he exalted love, of beings as well as the arts. The notice from the Musée des Augustins recalls how these civic and very unchaste decorations are in line with those he executed for large hotels and cafés. The naturally constrained architectural framework of the ceilings of the Salle des Illustres in no way restrained his brush, which blossomed gracefully into a quintessence of “Art…
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