Antonio of Gandara

Antonio of Gandara , born the December 16th 1861 with Paris where he died the June 30th 1917, is a painter, draftsman and pastellist French.

Gandara, in which the father was Spanish originating in Potosi San Luis to the Mexico and the French mother, educated in England, is influenced by three cultures. In March 1878, when it is allowed at the 17 years age to the 3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of the fine arts, the assiduity of its work attracts the interest of the prestigious Gérôme. But whereas its professors guess that he will become a Master, anything does not let predict at which point the life of this young talent will be closely related on the intrigues and splendors of the Belle Time.

It is found near to Rodolphe Salis, founder of the black Chat, and contributing to the Living room of the Incoherent ones. At this point in time it binds friendship with Rivière, Goudeau, Steinlen, Caran d' Ache and Willette.

It exposes, for the first time, with the Living room of the Fields-Élysées of 1883. The year 1884 grants to him the honourable mention of the jury of the Living room for his Portrait of Saint Sebastien . In 1885, not very fortunate and always unknown, Gandara meets the count Robert de Montesquiou, of which it makes a portrait which likes the patron however demanding. The count presents it to some friends, among whom the countess Jean de Montebello of which it reproduces the gracious image vêtue white muslin, small size, the covered head of a hat that a light hand seems to protect from the wind.

Then the baroness Adolphe de Rothschild, the Greffulhe countess, Anna de Noailles, Marie d' Annunzio, and even Mrs Gautreau, the famous Mrs X of Sargent, are interested in this Gandara that all agree to find beautiful. During this time, Edouard of Gandara, one of the two brothers of the painter, works with Sarah Bernhardt which it accompanies with London and with the the United States.

Antonio côtoie Edmond de Goncourt of which he attends the Attic, Anatole France, Alphonse Daudet, Mecislas Goldberg, Jean Moréas, and other authors carrying out a less conventional life: Paul Verlaine, Lorraine Jean and Colette. Musicians, also: Reynaldo Hahn, Paderewski, Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré. But also the Large-Duchess of Mecklembourg, the prince Edmond de Polignac, Leconte de Lisle, the prince de Sagan, Paul Verlaine, Jean Moréas, Anna de Noailles, Lorraine Jean, Jean-Joseph Carriès, Marie d' Annunzio, Liana of Pougy, Sarah Bernhardt, Ida Rubinstein, Colette, Roman Brooks, and so much of other famous and less known characters of this time rich in artistic creation.

About 1900, Antonio of Gandara is at the top of his glory, required in Europe and in the United States, where it exposes, and in Argentine. Emile Verhaeren says it influenced by Jean Siméon Chardin and James MacNeill Whistler by itself. The monthly Larousse of October 1917 brings it closer to Zurbaran and Diego Vélasquez. Others believe to recognize in its technique the reflection of its admiration for Goya. William B. Denmore of the Metropolitan Magazine , on the contrary, insists on the individualism of her style.

It is made enemies among its jealous rivals or, according to the rumor, the husbands depities. One often sees it in company of the actress Polaire, of the wife of Gabriele d' Annunzio, of Liane of Pougy, or Ida Rubinstein.

Is this to like its models, or because he wanted them too beautiful? Little by little criticism underlines its attachment with the fashion of the day and the conservatism of the features while others, like Boldini, make proof of more than nervousness, or test like the young person Picasso.

However, the fame is far from giving up it. The Gazette of the Art schools estimates, in 1910, which “Mr. of Gandara reaches this year the perfection that its art can give”. Le Figaro illustrated makes him the honor of its first page. The newspaper of Buffalo Fine Academy Arts of New York describes it like one of the contemporary painters most required and most remarkable. the Echo of Paris qualifies its portrait of Ida Rubinstein of rare and perfect.

The war comes. The newspapers bring bad news. Friends write face to him, telling the horrors of the trenches. Gandara is generous towards works of support for the combatants and their families. But the last day of June 1917, his/her friend André Rouveyre announces with Diaghilew, Fokine, Karsavina, Picasso and Marcelle Meyer the death of a large artist. Antonio of Gandara did not have whereas 55 years. Called the painter gentleman, admired women for his beauty and of all for his distinction, Antonio of Gandara rests with the Cimetière of the Father-Lachaise in Paris.

One retains today this artist his portraits, the attractive ones seen of Paris and his dead natures. Some unusual works, like Three Don Quichotte and the Beautiful one and the Animal . But also the lithographies of a great delicacy that it produced about 1895 and 1896 and which drew the attention of the public during the exposures Art nouveau at Bing. Antonio of Gandara illustrated some literary works of which Danaïdes of Camille Mauclair and a rare edition of the Chauves-Souris of the poet Robert de Montesquiou.

He exposed to Brussels, in New York, in Boston, in Saragossa, in Barcelona, in Munich, in Berlin, in Dresden, cities where criticism underlined qualities of this painter who refused to yield with the artistic currents with the mode of his time. But of its time he was an exceptional witness. An actor, also, for Edmond de Goncourt, Lorraine Jean, Marcel Proust, Andre Rouveyre, Apollinaire, or for the count de Montesquiou who quote it in their works.

To consult

Gabriel Badea-Päun:

“Between mondanity and patronage - misadventures of a relation, Robert de Montesquiou and Antonio of Gandara”, Review of the National library n° 25,2007
“Antonio of Gandara (1861-1917), birth of a portraitist society man. The exposure in Durand-Ruel, April 1893”, conference at the Company of the History of French Art, submitted to the National institute of History of Art, Paris, on November 18th, 2006
“a lithographic intermezzo - prints of Antonio of Gandara”, News of the print, n° 207, July-September 2006, pp. 23-36
“Of the workshop of Gérôme to the cabaret of the black Cat. The years of training of Antonio of Gandara (1861-1917)”, the Old man Montmartre, new series, booklet n°75, October 2005, pp. 12-36
Antonio of Gandara, his life, its work (1861-1917), catalogs reasoned of work painted and drawn, thesis of doctorate under the direction of Mr. professor Bruno Foucart, Paris IV Sorbonne, 2005

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