Lot 28: PROPERTY FROM A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION ARTURO MICHELENA (1863-1898) LA VISITE ELECTORALE

oil on canvas

signed and dated Paris - 1886 lower right

PROVENANCE

Madame Dusac, Lausanne
Maître Edouard Sillig, Lausanne
Acquired from the above (1920s)
Thence by descent
EXHIBITED

Paris, Palais des Champs-Elysées, Salon de la Société des Artistes Français, 1887, no. 1691, p. 140
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Juan Calzadilla, Arturo Michelena, Caracas, Ernesto Armitano Editor, 1973, p. 28, illustration of a print after this work
CATALOGUE NOTE

Until last year, two major paintings from the small quantity produced by Arturo Michelena, Venezuela's most famous nineteenth century painter, were lost from sight and the subject of research and speculation for many art historians. Last heard of when they were exhibited in the 1887 Paris Salon, they became figures of legend, paintings mentioned as the Holy Grails of Venezuelan art history.

Through hard work, persistence, the aid of past and present research by distinguished art historians and much luck, Sotheby's has had the honor of helping to bring to light once again these two paintings: La Visite Electorale, from 1886, Michelena's first large scale work, and L'Enfant Malade, from 1887.

Just one year after having arrived in Paris on a scholarship, Michelena, at twenty-three, had earned a position with Le Monde Ilustré as an illustrator. He received an Honorable Mention for his participation in the Salon Officiel des Artistes of 1886. This award not only allowed him to stay in France, but also encouraged him to enter the Salon of 1887. He would have to paint two monumental works to get the attention of the jury.

A newcomer in Paris, Arturo Michelena submitted two paintings to the prestigious 1887 Salon des Artistes Français, presided over by William Bouguereau that year. Une Visite Electorale, from 1886, was the first important work Michelena executed in Europe. L'Enfant Malade, of similar size and comparable composition, was awarded the second-class Gold Medal, the highest honor that could be bestowed on a foreign artist, and later sold in these rooms on November of 2004 for a record breaking $1.352 million dollars.

Une Visite Electorale was the first to be painted. It is a genre scene depicting a country politician's visit to a peasant household. In a triangular composition, the confused farmer has sat down on the edge of the bed to cede his only chair to his well-dressed visitor, suggesting that he is merely waiting for the politician to finish his speech before accompanying him to the door. The little girl in the background is absorbed by her thoughts and is transfixed in the stream of sunlight from the window. She is perhaps the only character in the room who speaks clearly with her silence; it voices a total lack of interest in the politician's rhetoric, an attitude only hinted at by her parents who are constrained by politeness to listen.

It is interesting to note that Michelena would seek to confront his French audience with such a realistic style. The two paintings are set in meager dwellings of poor country and city folk. There is, however, a clear intention to highlight the dignity with which these characters live. The artist painted with special attention the most insignificant objects on the wall, like the display of blue and white china on the shelves and the few pieces of furniture--allowing Michelena to demonstrate his virtuosity through the transparency of the glass and the brilliant, reflective qualities of the light.

Clearly content with his submission of two great works, Michelena wrote to his mother on April 15, 1887, saying, "Since the 15th of last month I have finished my paintings for the Salon...and you should know that I am more than satisfied, not by my ambition, but by having reached what I've always desired in my art" (Calzadilla, p. 217).

After the Salon, however, despite the accolades, Michelena's stipend from the Venezuelan government stopped and, in order for him to remain in Europe, both paintings were immediately sold. They both entered private collections, and were never publicly displayed again. Luckily, Une Visite Electorale was known to scholars through a small photograph taken at the time, but which scarcely revealed the overall composition of the work. It is extraordinarily important that this painting, the last large-scale work of Michelena, the whereabouts of which were unknown, has resurfaced today after being lost to the public for almost 120 years.

51 1/2 by 67 1/4 in.<br><br>(130.8 by 170.8 cm)