Henri-Gabriel IBELS (1867-1936) - Lot 27

Henri-Gabriel IBELS (1867-1936) Paulus, 1893 Oil on cardboard. Signed upper right. 48 x 40 cm In 1889, at the Académie Julian with his friend Paul Sérusier, Ibels co-founded the "Nabis", a circle that also included Bonnard, Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel and Maurice Denis. - a circle that also included Bonnard, Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel and Maurice Denis. With Toulouse-Lautrec, he haunted circuses and cafés-concerts: they illustrated the album Le Café-Concert, published by L'Estampe originale in 1893, for which he drew the cover. His fellow artists dubbed him the "Nabi journalist". Indeed, he devoted much of his energy to illustrating the anarchist press (Le Père peinard, L'Escarmouche, Le Sifflet and many other titles such as l'Assiette au beurre). He had a passion for the printed word, whether poster, musical score or theater program. Paulus is the first great star of the café-concert. Ibels designed a poster for him and made him the subject of one of his plates for the Le Café-Concert portfolio. It's in exactly the same pose, quite original in fact, that he depicts him in our painting, which allows us to date it to 1893. He's on stage, in full light, against a vibrant background of gradations that indicate we're in one of the summer establishments in the Champs-Elysées gardens - probably the summer Alcazar. Our painting was exhibited at La Bodinière's one-man show in 1894 (stamped on the original frame, which has now disappeared); a rare testimony to his talent, in a style very close to that of his fellow Nabis, which he unfortunately exploited too little.