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Sat 06 Jul

Jean-Francis AUBURTIN (1866-1930). Isadora Duncan with macaroons. Sanguine signed with monogram and monogram stamp. Collection stamp on back. 50 x 36.5 cm. Jean-Francis AUBURTIN's work is strongly influenced by dance. This inspirational theme was even the subject of a monographic exhibition at the Musée d'Aix-Les-Bains (2018-2019) entitled Pas de deux : Auburtin, Rodin et la danse. The Parisian art world of the Belle Epoque was strongly influenced by two famous American-born dancers, Loïe Fuller (1862-1928) and Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), both of whom moved to Paris at the turn of the century. Isadora Dunca arrived in 1900. Aided by Loïe Fuller, who was already very successful and welcomed her into her company in 1902, Isadora made a name for herself in the art salons of London, Paris, Berlin and Munich, quickly eclipsing her rival. She moved to the Hôtel de Biron, rue de Varenne, where she founded a dance school in 1905 and taught there until 1908. There, she lived next door to Auguste Rodin, "her friend and master" according to her account of his life, Ma vie, published in 1927. In 1909, she moved into two large apartments at 5 rue Danton: the first floor became her home and the second floor was used as a dance academy. Barefoot, clad in flashy scarves and faux-Greek tunics, she created a primitive style based on choreographic improvisation to go against the rigid styles of the time. She was particularly inspired by Greek mythology. She rejected traditional ballet steps in favor of improvisation, emotion and the human form. Isadora Duncan felt that classical ballet, with its strict rules and codifications, was "ugly and unnatural". Isadora Duncan got her first idea of dance from the rhythm of the waves of the Pacific Ocean, near which she lived all her youth in California. She was one of the first to react to the constraints imposed on the body by tutus and pointe shoes. She danced barefoot, even totally naked, and outdoors. She was also one of the first to free herself from music and find her own internal musicality. According to Serge Lifar, the "new dance" invoked by Isadora is "a prayer, and its movements must direct their waves towards heaven, communicating with the eternal rhythm of the universe". For her, it's all about spiritual renewal, both personal and collective. She declared that she had come to Europe "to bring about a rebirth of religion through dance, to reveal the beauty and sanctity of the human body through the expression of its movements, and not to provide after-dinner entertainment for stuffed bourgeois": "To dance is to pray". In 1905, she performed in Vienna, Berlin and Munich, accompanied by ten young singers under the direction of a Byzantine seminarian. Throughout her career, Isadora Duncan detested the commercial aspects of public performance; she saw touring, contracts and other practical aspects of her profession as distractions from her true mission: the creation of beauty and the education of the young. An extremely gifted and totally unconventional pedagogue, she founded three schools dedicated to transmitting her philosophy to groups of young girls, although her attempt to include boys proved a failure. The first, in Grünewald, Germany, gave rise to her most famous group of pupils: the Isadorables, who each took her surname as a stage name and danced with her, but also quite independently. The second was installed in the grand Hôtel de Bellevue in Meudon, which her companion Paris Singer, one of the heirs to the company of the same name, had offered her in 1913. Its existence was short-lived, however, as the hotel was requisitioned during the Great War to care for wounded soldiers. As for the third Moscow school, created in the 1920s, it is at one with the dancer's brief move to Bolshevik Russia in line with her socialist convictions. Isadora Duncan occupied an important place in the artistic and intellectual life of her time. She inspired many artists in their creations of sculpture, jewelry, poetry, novels, photographs, watercolors and paintings, and even writers, such as the character Élise Angel in John Cowper Powys' novel Comme je l'entends. Élise is a dancer loosely inspired by Isadora Duncan and represents the mistress of the main hero, Richard Storm, in contrast to his other, legitimate and possessive love, Nelly. When the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées was built in 1913, Isadora's portrait was engraved by Antoine Bourdelle in the bas-reliefs above the entrance, and painted by Maurice Denis on the auditorium mural depicting the nine Muses.

Estim. 4 000 - 6 000 EUR
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