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T.F. Chen Cultural Center Post-Van Gogh Retrospective: Happy Pere Tanguy
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Gogh: "Portrait of Pere Tanguy, Half-Lenght,"(1889), Coll. Stavros S. Niarchos Matisse: "Mme. Matisse: The Green Line,"(1905), Staten Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen Picasso: "Portrait of Corina Romen,"(1902), Private Collection Cezanne: "Still Life,"(1877), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Previous Art Work 2 of 53 Next About the center About the artist |
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During Vincent van Gogh's stay in Paris, he painted three portratis of Julien (Pere) Tanguy in oil and sketch on upon the back of a menu at the Restaurant du Chalet, where he was able to organize an exhibition. The earliest oil portrait of Pere Tanguy shows the figure hatless, in January 1887 - "a work particularly fine from a psychological standpoint because it captures so well the kindly, lively understanding of this essentially simple man who was so important to many painters". In the winter of 1887-88, Vincent made two more portraits of Julien Tanguy, this time in half-length, wearing a straw hat, and sitting before a background of Japanes Ukiyo-e prints. They are rendered in the Neo-Impressionist style with vivid color strokes. The background prints of the second portrait have been changed except for the head of an actor on the left, and below it, the group of red and blue flowers with green leaves upon a yellow background. In Dr. T.F. Chen's "Happy Pere Tanguy," the Japanese Ukiyo-e prints have disappeared. They are replace by two 20th century paintings: "Mme. Matisse: The Green Line" (1905), one of Henri Matisse's Fauvist masterpieces: and Pablo Picasso's "Portrait of Corina Romeu," (1902) painted in Barcelona. In front of Pere Tanguy, sits Paul Cezanne's "Still Life" (1877): a jar, a cup, and nine apples upon a brown and white cloth. The still-life together with the half-lenght portrait of Pere Tanguy forms a pyramid-shaped composition, the top of which divides the two paintings hanging upon the wall. The straight gaze of Mme. Matisse attracts the viewers' attention as Julien Tanguy maintains his dignigied pose. Both Matisse and Picasso owed their artistic development in part to Cezanne, who provided a stepping stone for them to advance into the 20th century art forum. Due to his great generosity towards the avant-grade young artists of that epoque, Pere Tanguy, a humble art supplier, became a prominent art collector-dealer of modern masterpieces, as well as an immortalized figure in the portraits painted of him. How happy Pere Tanguy must be now to live forever in art history!
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