Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
Lot 44
Francisco Miralles y Galup(Spanish, 1848-1901)Trois Parisiennes dans le Bois de Boulogne 24 x 19 3/4in (61 x 50.2cm)
20 November 2019, 13:00 EST
New YorkUS$20,000 - US$30,000
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Francisco Miralles y Galup (Spanish, 1848-1901)
Trois Parisiennes dans le Bois de Boulogne
signed 'F. Miralles.' (lower right)
oil on canvas laid down on board
24 x 19 3/4in (61 x 50.2cm)
signed 'F. Miralles.' (lower right)
oil on canvas laid down on board
24 x 19 3/4in (61 x 50.2cm)
Footnotes
Provenance
Estate of Frederick Whitman, San Francisco;
Sale, Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, 17 March 1988, lot 2458;
Acquired from the above by the present owner.
Francisco Miralles y Galup, a painter of genre, figures, portraits, landscapes and urban views, became one of the most famous painters of the 19th century to emerge from the Catalan region in Spain. In 1866 he departed from Spain and arrived in Paris where he was welcomed and associated with other notable Spanish painters of the time such as Ignacio Zuloaga, Santiago Rusiñol and Enrique Granados. His delicately painted scenes of Parisian bourgeois life set in both urban and rural settings and quite often along the seashore were very well received. Miralles' paintings of female figures of high society garnered quick recognition from both the public and his peers. Adding to this success was a commercial relationship he formed with the art dealer Goupil & Cie, through whom Miralles was able to export a large amount of works to America. The artist exhibited at the National Society of Fine Arts, and from 1875 to 1896 at the Salon des Artistes in Paris winning many awards. After living nearly thirty years in Paris, he returned to Barcelona in 1893 for family reasons but would continue to send works to the Parisian salons.
Elegant women dressed in fancy and colorful attire are the central themes of Miralles' oeuvre, representing everyday life vignettes from the high society. He was a painter of modern elegance with a meticulous eye for detail, which can be seen in the present work in which the three Parisian ladies are about to enjoy an afternoon boat ride in the park. The blue parasol awaits on the ground as the ladies prepare to embark.
The influences of a moderate impressionistic approach to painting is evident in this masterful composition and can be attributed to the works of fellow 19th century masters such as Eugène Boudin, Jules Bastien-Lepage and Alfred Stevens.