Theo P. Wagner (active c. 1890-1900) - Lot 151

Theo P. Wagner (active c. 1890-1900) The Clown Lodge. 1897. Lithograph. 95x330 mm. Johnson 158. Color print. Very fine and fresh proof on chine volant, signed in pencil. Full margins. Edition of 100 proofs for the Galerie Vollard album of original prints. Ex-coll. H. M. Petiet (Lugt 5031). Théo P. Wagner was a mysterious artist who worked at the Molier circus, where he performed a trapeze act with the Duc de la Rochefoucauld. He attracted the attention of Huysmans, who devoted several lines to him in Certains (1889). The author had noticed a watercolor by the artist at the Salon des Indépendants in 1884. It depicted clowns at the Cirque Molier. Wagner, whose biography is unknown, also exhibited at the Salon de la Rose-Croix (1892). He produced a small number of lithographs. "Signac tells us more about the character. He tells us he was a 'muscular athlete, trapeze partner to the Duc de la Rochefoucauld. Together they did a number at the rue de Lyon concert, where this Wagner broke his leg. [a] Both now work at Molier. [a] Théo Wagner was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts, as was the acrobat Duke. Seurat knew them there. Théo, not very wealthy, would pose the superb nude u one week, and the next week, in the same studio, would conscientiously paint the model who had replaced him. In the meantime, he sold cufflinks under doors and, in the company of Sali and others, took nude walks in the forest of Fontainebleau. A regular at the first "Chat Noir". The studio where he did the watercolor Le Cirque Molier was located at 13 rue Ravignana', in other words, on the site of the Bateau-Lavoir, before it bore this illustrious name." (J. Bailly-Herzberg, Dictionnaire de l'Estampe en France 1830-1950, Paris, Flammarion, 1985, p. 341).