« Portrait décoratif de Mlle Jeanine H… en japonaise », 1912
Oil on canvas, signed lower right
162 x 114 cm
Exhibition:
Salon des artistes français (sous-section des arts décoratifs), Grand Palais, Paris, 1912, n°5215
This spectacular painting by Edouard Fer was presented, the year of its realization, in 1912, in the decorative arts section of the Salon des artistes français.
Guillaume Apollinaire testifies to this in a review he wrote for the Intransigeant published on April 30:
"One will understand that after having seen and reviewed the admirable exhibition of Albert Besnard, I find myself without strength to admire works much less beautiful. Exception must be made however for the painting of Mr. Édouard Fer who introduced to the French Artists the neo-impressionist technique with a daring painting representing a Japanese woman. Mr. Fer has fortunately avoided deformation and his painting, whose drawing is in conformity with that of the masters, will not shock anyone."
This criticism is notably cited by Frédéric Fuochi, head of the digital and music conservation division at the Bibliothèque Municipale à Vocation Régionale de Nice in an article devoted to the study of unpublished correspondence from Apollinaire to Edouard Ferℹ︎.
The municipal institution in fact holds the archives of the Nice painter (as well as those of his sister, the singer Victoria Fer), donated by his heirs. With the discovery of this letter, Frédéric Fuochi, questioning the relationship between the painter and the poet, brought to light the friendly and ongoing links between the two men.
After recalling a first silent and contemplative meeting at the tomb of Eugène Delacroix, for the anniversary of the painter's death (while Apollinaire observed a man carrying "a large bouquet of flowers from the south: roses, mimosas, violets. He approached the monument, placed the flowers on it, meditated for a moment, and slowly left. It was Mr. Fer."), the curator quotes in his article another episode related by Apollinaire and which interests us more particularly in the context of the study of this painting:
"The second and real meeting took place shortly before the opening of the Exhibition of French Artists at the Grand Palais gallery in April 1912. The young painter attracted the attention of the famous art critic and defender of Cubism, Apollinaire, by asking for his opinion on the proper placement of his painting. Apollinaire found the work so innovative that he thought it worthy of being exhibited in the Independent Artists section:
"A few days before the opening of the Artistes Français, I was leaving the Grand Palais, when a young man approached me and, declaring himself a painter, asked me if his painting was well placed.
I promised to inform him the next day, and so I did. I had, it is true, enough difficulty to discover his painting that one had placed on the balcony. It happened to be one of the most daring paintings of the Salon, since it was based on the neo-impressionist technique, the models of which had only been seen so far at the Indépendants. It was not one of those divisionist paintings where the painter streaks the canvas in order to give it a blurred and poetic appearance, it was a true pointillist painting, where the colors kept all their strength and purity. How did Mr. Edouard Fer manage to get his painting admitted to the French Artists!
I saw Mr. Fer again the next day, at the agreed time, and without telling him what I thought of his painting, I informed him of the place where it had been hung.
The artist was waiting for me in the Cours-la-Reine gardens. I approached him. He had not seen me and I heard him humming a song from Nice:
E cinqu'e strass'e roba capeù...
He held in his hand an antique Greek terracotta cup with black drawings on a red background and examined it lovingly."
The reproduction of a charcoal sketch of this work, in which a woman, of Japanese inspiration, is at the heart of a decorative composition, illustrates the article by Frederic Fuochi.
The painter won a medal as well as a foundation prize following the presentation of this painting at the Salon.
Hieratic as a Byzantine icon, this mysterious female figure is also adorned with the golds that characterize this art. Golds that illuminate the kimono, a complex and shimmering costume that comes to an end in an opulent spray, where the flowers of the fabric merge with those of a trellis that serves as a frame to the composition. Detaching his character on a mosaic sea blue background, the glow of the moon adds to the mystery of this imposing presence.
On either side of the doll's face, the thin hands escape from the sleeves of the kimono to break the stem of a flowery garland. Would Mrs. Chrysanthemum have let her sailor husband go?
A divisionist rather than a pointillist, which is how he preferred to define himself, Edouard Fer is the author of a book entitled Solfeggio of Color, devoted to the scientific principles of neo-impressionism.
ℹ︎ Frédéric Fuochi, Guillaume Apollinaire à Edouard Fer, Découverte d'une lettre inédite du poète, https://bmvr.nice.fr/PATRIMOINE/apollinaire-lettre-manuscrite.aspx, BMVR de Nice.
We thank Mr. Frédéric Fuochi for his kind permission to reproduce his research.