Nineteen paintings signed by several of the leading artists of the early twentieth century are now on display at the Moretti Fine Arts gallery.
The exhibition “A summer in Monaco: from Impressionism to Modern art” pays tribute to the artistic current of Impressionism, presenting a collection of works that check all the boxes for the height of Monaco’s cultural season.
Fabrizio Moretti’s new Monaco gallery showcases nineteen paintings in three rooms, all paying tribute to the Impressionist period. At the crossroads of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this artistic movement brought together some of the most famous masters of painting, and the precursors of modern art.
Picasso, Degas, Cézanne, Matisse, Renoir, Sisley, Pissaro and others come to life this summer in this Monte-Carlo pocket gallery, where the value of the canvases reaches the dizzying height of $50 million.
And it is Claude Monet who leads the pack with a bucolic painting, realized in 1883 and well named “Près de Monte-Carlo”, probably inspired by the coastline of the time on the outskirts of Cap-Martin.
Picasso’s pink period
“What we wanted with this exhibition is to pay tribute to the Impressionist movement, bringing together the work of several artists linked to the Côte d’Azur, for having stayed and worked here,” explains Flavio Gianassi, director of “Moretti Fine Arts.” For his second exhibition, the new gallery is making a name for itself with this project, in collaboration with the British gallery Dickinson, specializing in this artistic period.
In the first room, devoted to landscapes, Pissaro and Sisley’s brush strokes, highlighting the snowy Seine in 1879, are among the outstanding examples of these oil paintings. A little further on, a series of Renoir’s portraits rubs shoulders with a pair women’s portraits, signed Edvard Munch. These rare paintings have been kept in a private collection for several decades. This is the case for all the paintings hung for this exhibition. All the paintings are from private collections. And therefore for sale, for those who have the means. But luckily, window-shopping is allowed, and even recommended in the third room, dedicated to Picasso.
“This is the time for our exhibition,” continues Flavio Gianassi. On the wall, a painting made in 1906, attributed to Picasso’s pink period, the most ‘French’ period of the Spanish painter’s work.
At that time, he lived and worked at the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, where he cohabited with Kees Van Dongen. The two friends sometimes exchanged paintings. This is how Picasso came to offer “Jeune garçon nu à cheval” (boy leading a horse) to Van Dongen, work done for an imagined composition dubbed “L’abreuvoir”. The latter kept the work forty years and in return gave “La vigne” (the vine), which is still hanging in the Picasso Museum in Paris.
The “Jeune garçon nu à cheval” has belonged to several private collections, and it shows more discreet than his other work. But this painting, with the characteristic pictorial mastery deserves to be seen up close.
Under the layers of paint, faces emerge from another painting. At the time, Pablo Picasso often reused canvases when he could not afford to buy them. It is ironic, when we know that this recycled canvas could cost several million Euros to anyone who wants to acquire it.
For more information:
The gallery is open from Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm until 1 September
Moretti Fine Arts: 27, avenue de la Costa. Free entry.
