Lot n° 101
Estimation :
2000 - 3000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 2 700EUR
Gaston BUSSIERE (Cuisery 1862-Saulieu 1928)
Allegory... - Lot 101 - Crait + Müller
Gaston BUSSIERE (Cuisery 1862-Saulieu 1928)
Allegory of White Coal
Watercolour and gouache, collage of rhinestones.
Signed lower left Gaston Bussière.
28 x 37 cm
Our drawing was made around 1901.
White coal, in contrast to black coal, is the poetic name given to the energy derived from hydro-electricity, a technique that was innovative at the time. Contributing to the economic development of an entire part of the Grenoble region, the White Coal, also known as the Electricity Fairy, became a source of inspiration for many artists who gave it the allegorical appearance of a diaphanous woman, barely material, in a mountainous setting.
Among them, the symbolist painter Gaston Bussière. A student of Cabanel and Puvis de Chavannes, he was then influenced by Gustave Moreau and Mucha, influenced by Wagnerian music, symbolism and art nouveau. A lover of medieval history and legends, literature, spirituality sometimes tinged with esotericism, a great lover of operas, Bussière could only be inspired by this theme of white coal, of which he made several works, thus glorifying this electricity produced in particular by the Bergès family, of which he was a close relative. In his correspondence, the painter will also point out that this is one of his favourite themes. The allegorical figure thus appears on a large portrait of Aristide Bergès, painted by Bussière in 1902, and kept in the Bergès de Lancey house, now a museum. An Allegory of White Coal was painted for a relative of the Bergès family, Amélie Castaing, the same year.
Bussière worked very often for the Bergès family. One of his most famous paintings, Tristan and Isolde, painted in 1896 and later owned by Salvator Dali, was hung on Lancey's Great Staircase. He also created most of the decorations for Lancey's family home, favouring the historicist or Art Deco style then in vogue.
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According to the archives, there were ancient links between
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