Our opinion is based first and foremost on the history of the work, based on numerous documents and archives that we have found, particularly on Julian Bastinos, its first owner. Additional documents, press articles such as his obituary in La Vanguardia in April 1918, his involvement in the milieu of Spanish painters in Paris, his direct or indirect contacts with, for example, Zola and Victor Hugo, are all testimonies that have made it possible to discern the links between Bastinos and Degas through the same artistic and literary circles that they frequented. It's this whole context we have rebuilt. As for the expertise, it is based on solid comparisons between the graphic design, colours and signature of this pastel with other works by Degas, as well as on an in-depth study of the pigments and signature, the compatibility of which with the period of the pastel.

Eloge du Maquillage is the name we decided to give to this pastel. It is inspired by Baudelaire:
"She [Woman] must then borrow from all the arts the means of rising above nature the better to subjugate hearts and minds" [Charles Baudelaire, "Eloge du Maquillage", Le Peintre de la vie moderne, 1863].

The names of the works have deliberately been kept in French, according to their original names.

Edgar Degas and Spain

When Manet travelled to Madrid in 1865, he was 33 years old. Degas undertook this trip in August-September 1889. He was then 55. But whereas Manet, for example, spent most of his early career studying the style of Velázquez and Goya, before travelling to Spain - Degas, though two years his junior, would not travel there until much later. In fact, his references remained Italian and drawing the primary basis of his art. This was his one and only foray into Spain. Leaving Cauterets in the Pyrenees, where he took a health cure, he travelled around the Iberian Peninsula, heading for Madrid and then down south, where, as he wrote, the heat was overwhelming, although this did not prevent him from going as far as Tangiers. A tribute to Delacroix?

To our knowledge, there are few works by Degas in Spain. There are three in the  Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum - Madrid - including Chez la modiste (MS-565)and one - a pastel - Unhappy Nelly (MS-790), in the Montserrat Museum . For private collections, we have located several works whose attribution to Degas remains to be studied.

In a letter to his friend, the sculptor Bartholomé, dated 18 September 1889, Degas wrote from Madrid: "Visit from about 9 a.m. to noon to the museum [Prado]". How can we explain the fleeting nature of this visit? In front of which works did he stop? Velázquez, Titian? Degas says nothing about this in his letters. Unless this brief visit can be explained by his precarious health, his fatigue, the blindness that had been obsessing him for a long time and the various aches and pains he complained of, which made it impossible for him to prolong his visit.

Eloge du Maquillage is one of a number of brothel scenes painted by Degas between 1875 and 1885, and more probably around 1879. Almost all of these monotypes and pastels on monotype were discovered in his studio when he died in 1917. Eloge du Maquillage is clearly a variation on Le Client sérieux at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Monotype on the one hand, pastel on the other. Degas produced several versions of the same subject, taking a detail from one and enlarging it to make another, as in the case of the Eloge du Maquillage.

Eloge du Maquillage is also of historical interest, as it was probably acquired during the stay of Julian Bastinos, its first owner, in Paris between 1872 and 1900. It embodies a history that is not only personal - that of a large Catalan family at the head of a famous publishing house and important art collector - but also that of Spain, with the historical tribulations between the confiscation of this work by the State in 1934, and its return to the owner in 1940 at the end of the Civil War, all events duly documented in numerous publications and official archives from the period. This pastel is indeed a work by Edgar Degas, and we are therefore publishing it in the first digital catalogue raisonné devoted to him.

The story of Eloge du Maquillage

 

The story of this pastel piece is inseparably linked to that of Julian Bastinos, its first owner. Coming from a prominent Catalan family, Julian Bastinos ran a famous publishing house with Antonio, his brother. Antonio published valuable information about his brother in several works, thus allowing us to learn about his journey, follow this work by Degas that he acquired at the end of the 19th century, and establish its provenance.

 

In Barcelona, the Bastinos were an important family that played a significant social, political, and cultural role, especially in the world of the arts. As such, they own a significant collection of paintings that could be found in their 1200 m2 townhouse located right in the heart of the city.

For example, this collection includes works by Goya, Casas, Nonell, Creixams, and Degas. Brought up in the art world, Julian received an artistic education in Barcelona under Ignacio Casals and Ramon Puiggari. He continued his studies in Paris, starting in 1872, under the guidance of the brothers Samuel and Daniel Urrabieta Vierge. Julian would end up staying there for many years. Paris, like Vienna, is the undisputed centre of artistic creation.

Bastinos settled at 115 rue d'Alésia, not close to the Montparnasse district, where he joined a colony of Spanish painters, including Adolfo Guiard, whom Degas knew well. In fact, in a letter from May 1884 addressed to Aglaüs Bouvenne [See Theodore Reff, The Letters of Edgar Degas, 2020, n° 218, pp. 240-241], Degas writes: "Dear Sir, I took the package of proofs requested around 11:15 and brought it to Mr. Clémenceau [sic]. There, I opened it and although Mr. Guiard (the young Spanish painter) with whom I was at the printing press on Saturday assured me that the Japanese prints were in the lot, it was impossible for me to distinguish them from the other proofs on ordinary paper." Degas' influence on Adolfo Guiard is certain, as demonstrated by this piece:

 

The book on Daniel Urrabieta Vierge, published in 2005 [Daniel Urrabieta Vierge, Madrid City Hall], on the other hand, follows Urrabieta's life, his fame, his stay in Paris, and highlights his relationships, notably with Emile Bergerat, editor-in-chief of La Vie moderne, a journal founded by Georges Charpentier in April 1879. As John House states in essence in Impressionism. Paint and Politics, Yale University Press, 2004, p. 81, exhibitions were organized on the sidelines of the official Salon to present rejected works. He cites the example of Manet, of whom he says: “A further rejection by the Salon jury in 1876 led him to adopt another mode of displaying a range of his work, by opening his studio, where visitors could see not only the rejected canvases but also a selection of previous paintings. Finally, in April 1880, simultaneously with that year‘s Salon, he mounted a show of smaller, more informal works, ten oils and fifteen pastels, at the offices of Georges Charpentier’s fashionable magazine La Vie moderne (p. 61). The editor-in-chief of this journal was a close friend of Urrabieta.

It's not surprising that the latter collaborated in various exhibitions, as we can read in the document below: Renoir in 1879, Manet and Monet in 1880, and Sisley in 1881. He meets Emile Zola, Victor Hugo, Gustave Courbet, Gustave Doré, and Théo Van Gogh (p. 49). Urrabieta is obviously a significant link between all these artists of the time.

 

Urrabieta Vierge created the main illustration for Zola's book: L'Assommoir.

 

Daniel Urrabieta also met Victor Hugo, for whom he created several illustrations. They first met at a dinner at the writer's house, during which Hugo talked to him about his Spanish girlfriend, Pepita.

 

Julian Bastinos continued his journey in Paris. As a porcelain decorator and painter, naturally, he made contact with the Sèvres Manufacture where, according to his brother's writings in En Pleno Ocaso, 1922, pp. 159-163, and in an article from La Vanguardia dated April 28, 1918, he collaborated with the famous institution.

 

Fortunately, the institution was directed by the scholar Champfleury, who was appointed curator of the collections on March 1, 1872, and then director of the Manufacture in 1887. This information is included in the book by Antonio Bastinos, Julian's brother, En Pleno Ocaso, published by Elzevirian printing house, Barcelona, 1922. It reads: "Champfleury commissions decorations on porcelain and luxury fans from Bastinos for certain manufacturers in Paris." This is also mentioned in the obituary article from La Vanguardia dated April 28, 1918.

Born in 1852, Julian Bastinos was first and foremost an artist with a passion for drawing and painting. He also developed his talents as a musician, poet and writer, and took an interest in children's education, which led him to publish a number of works aimed at young people.

During his stay in Paris from 1872, he took classes with the brothers Samuel and Daniel Urrabieta and contributed to the Histoire du costume published by the Firmin-Didot printing house.

In addition to his artistic work for the Institut du Développement du Travail National, Catalonia's main employers' organisation - Fomento del Trabajo Nacional - we should also mention his drawings on stone under the direction of Magin Pujadas and his decorations on porcelain commissioned by Champfleury and other luxury objects for a number of Parisian manufacturers.

According to Antonio Bastinos, his brother Julian's ardent imagination was perceptible in his works, and it is likely that it was his reading of Jules Verne, Flammarion's descriptions of the sidereal world and Castelar's speeches, of which he was a great admirer, that prompted him to move to Egypt. There he continued his publishing and artistic activities.

Now, Champfleury knew Degas, as evidenced by this letter from Degas to Edmond Duranty published by Theodore Reff, The Letters of Edgar Degas, 2020, n° 17, pp. 144-145, note 8, in which he writes: "Degas who knew him at this time, witnessed a note to him from Champfleury, May 15, 1870, cancelling a meeting”. Letter from Champfleury to Degas dated May 15, 1870, addressed to Monsieur Edgar Degas,13 rue de Laval Paris.

This letter is also mentioned by Henri Loyrette, in Degas, 1991, p. 722, note 88: "Dear Sir, this Tuesday morning, around ten o'clock, won't I come to see you. Yours very cordially." Letter signed by Champfleury sent to the same address.

Another document that caught our attention is a letter written to Jean-Baptiste Faure on January 2, 1887, where Degas refers to a certain Mr. B. who was supposed to purchase a painting for 3000 francs. In The Letters by Edgar Degas [Letter No. 300, note 2, pp. 412-413], Reff suggests the names of Etienne Boussod and Emile Bertin. Considering Degas' relationships with certain artists from the Spanish colony settled in Paris, Bastinos cannot be excluded as a possibility for the initial "B".

Therefore, the link between Champfleury and Degas has been established. There is every reason to believe that Champfleury acted as an intermediary between Degas and Bastinos and that the latter, himself an artist, was not indifferent to Degas' dancers and nudes.

Bastinos, a porcelain decorator but also - almost - a historian, as revealed through his watercolours illustrating Mr. A. Racinet's work on historical costume published in 1888, Paris, Firmin-Didot Publishing: [https://www.cuttersguide.com/pdf/French/le-costume-historique-vol-6-1888.pdf].

Together with his brother Antonio, he runs a major publishing house in Barcelona, which publishes numerous educational and school textbooks as well as art books. That's all it takes to understand Julian Bastinos' personality and his keen interest in painting.

But the story of Julian Bastinos does not end there, just as the story of the pastel begins. Between 1890 and 1900, Julian Bastinos "navigated" between Paris and Barcelona. One date in particular stands out, however: the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, which his Catalan publishing house attended, presenting reference teaching and school manuals.

 

Following disagreements with his brother Antonio, Julian Bastinos left Barcelona in the early 1900s and continued his career at the International Court in Cairo until 1918. In November 1901, in a letter sent to Deputy Enrique Olaverria in Mexico, Julian Bastinos explained why he separated from his brother and departed for Egypt.

 

Pastel artwork thus accompanies Julian Bastinos to Egypt, as confirmed by its framing by A. Marcovitch in Alexandria, as indicated by the label on the back.

 

 

Bastinos passed away in April 1918. He was buried in Cairo. On April 28, 1918, the newspaper La Vanguardia announced his passing and outlined the main stages of his life, which we have recounted. Returns in Barcelona, the pastel remained in the Bastinos family until it was confiscated by the State in 1934 in the context of the Republique before the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. This was due to the Law of Historical, Artistic, and Scientific Heritage, 1933 which was applied differently in Spain depending on the geographical areas. In Catalonia, the Catalan government’s law PHAC went into effect in July 1934. It resulted in the confiscation of nearly 150 works from the Bastinos family, including those by Goya, Casas, Nonell, and Degas. The painting Éloge du Maquillage is listed under the name Mujeres [Women] in the lists of the National Art Heritage Defense Service (SDPAN) of the Ministry of National Education. We can find the list on the internet in the archives of the Corona de Aragon at the Ministry of Culture.

In 1934, Éloge du Maquillage was photographed under the Spanish title Mujeres [Women] by Adolfo Mas, the official photographer of the Museum Commission of Catalonia, with an original photo stamp and another one in black ink. The Amatller Institute of Art History, one of the Hispanic references in art history, confirmed the authenticity of these two stamps.

Once confiscated, the pastel artwork was kept at the Monastery of Pedralbes in Barcelona and was returned to the Bastinos family in 1940. The painting bears two labels on the back indicating its deposit at the Monastery in 1939 and at the General Deposit Fund of the Ministry of National Education.

 

In the archives of the Corona de Aragon of the Ministry of Culture, we can find the list of confiscations from the Bastinos collection in 1934, which includes two works by Degas:
1 - Eloge du Maquillage sous le nom de Mujeres: Gouache by Degas - 60 x 47, Marco con cristal, Etiqueta Marcovitch, Alejandría; (Inner dimensions of pastel, unframed, W x H instead of H x W=48x62.5 cm).
2 - An oil on panel piece of which nothing else is known except that it is signed and dated: DEGAS 98.

Through all these documents, we believe that the second painting was acquired by Julian Bastinos at the time of the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris.

On April 30, 1940, the pastel painting was returned to the Bastinos family. This document can be consulted in the Corona de Aragon archives [Document consultation only upon written request].

The pastel painting changed ownership. It was then acquired by Joan Llonch Salas, President of Banc Sabadell and President of the Academy of Fine Arts of Sabadell (Barcelona) on September 13, 1940, with the sales deed appearing on the back of the photo of the work made by Adolfo Mas. It remains in the Llonch family by succession for 83 years. It is currently in a private Spanish collection.

The work was exhibited at the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona in 1952. Intended for the general public, this exhibition, which took place for a week during Christmas, brought together works by great artists from private collections for purely cultural purposes.

In La informacion of 7 November 2013 it says: "In the 1953-54 season, a group exhibition stands out with works by Fortuny, Nonell, Picasso, Degas, Van Gogh and Renoir". The newspaper mistakenly states 1953-1954 when it should have been 1952. The list of works exhibited is kept at Barcelona's Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA).

After provenance comes the question of the work's expertise and authenticity. Basing ourselves on analyses of the pigments and the compatibility of the signature with the period, establishing numerous solid comparisons between its graphic design, colours and signature with other works by Degas, we can confirm that this pastel is indeed an authentic work by Edgar Degas, which we are therefore publishing in the first digital catalogue raisonné devoted to it.

 

 

Comparaciones, análisis y expertizaje

 

Nosotros hemos detallado sus etapas, su historia, es decir, su provenance. Abordamos ahora la cuestión de su expertizaje y de su autenticidad como obra de Edgar Degas. Seguimos diversas etapas técnicas precedidas de un breve repaso histórico de los burdeles que marcarían la vida del artista hacia 1875-1880.

Si Degas y Toulouse-Lautrec son ciertamente los pintores los más celebres de los burdeles, ello no significa que fueran sus precursores. Como escribe Catherine Authier, “ Constantin Guys ( 1802-1892 9 fue de hecho el primero en interesarse por el tema en su época, un tema sulfuroso en el que percibía cierta belleza y sobre todo, un medio de tratar el desnudo con verdadera novedad “. [Catherine Authier, « Les maisons closes », Histoire par l’image, janvier 2016 : histoire-image.org/etudes/maisons-close. El tema fue retomado de diversas formas – caricaturas, ilustraciones de periódicos, por ejemplo – por Gavarni, Forain y Steinlen.

 

A la muerte de Degas, en 1917, se descubrieron en su taller unos cincuenta monotipos y pasteles sobre monotipo de escenas de burdeles, que conservó sin prácticamente mostrarlos nunca. Por lo que sabemos, las cartas de Degas no mencionan sus incursiones en el mundo de los burdeles, y se desconocen sus verdaderos motivos. Este paréntesis en la vida del artista se ha analizado a menudo con el voyerismo como explicación más plausible. Pero no es nuestra intención ahondar aquí en el sentido -relaciones íntimas, impulsos sentimentales y/o sexuales- que son temas abordados a menudo por los historiadores del arte, y que incluso fueron objeto de exposiciones temáticas como Bordell und Boudoir en la Kunsthalle Tübingen en 2005, y abordados parcialmente en 2011-2012 en el catálogo de la exposición Degas et le nu en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Boston y en el Museo de Orsay de París.

Se admite generalmente que Degas comenzó a frecuentar los burdeles a mediados de la década de 1870. Como se afirma en el catálogo de la exposición de 1988-1989 celebrada en París y Nueva York: "Todo indica que el artista no tuvo amante después de la década de 1870 y, a pesar de su lenguaje inusualmente rígido, asombraba a sus modelos con sus modales ejemplares". La actitud de Degas fue interpretada y comentada de diferentes maneras. "Camille Mauclair y sobre todo Denis Rouart dieron pie a la idea de que Degas estaba obsesionado por la sexualidad", se lee en el catálogo de la exposición de 1988-1989. Y prosigue: "Eugenia Parry Janis y Françoise Cachin [a través de sus] importantes trabajos han arrojado nueva luz sobre el conjunto de esta producción [de monotipos]".

Algunas de las obras, y no las menos importantes, son pasteles, no sobre papel, sino esta vez sobre cartón, al igual que Eloge du Maquillage. A saber Avant la course, 1883, Cleveland Art Museum (MS-2425), Femme à sa toilette essuyant son pied gauche, Musée d'Orsay, 1886 (MS-1232) y, por último, Femme à sa toilette, 1880, Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse (MS-1117). Estos son sólo algunos ejemplos que demuestran que Degas buscó diversificar el soporte de sus obras.

El tema de los burdeles de Degas inspiró a Picasso en numerosas ocasiones, y coleccionó con pasión los monotipos de Degas. Este tema también fue abordado en la exposición Picasso mira a Degas en el Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, en 2010 y en el Museo Picasso, Barcelona, en 2010-2011. Elizabeth Cowling ha escrito un artículo muy interesante sobre el tema: Los burdeles Picasso y Degas.

Del monotipo al pastel, consideremos el ejemplo de La fête de la patronne, cruce entre el pastel sobre monotipo del museo Picasso y el monotipo en el que Degas repite, con todo detalle, el gesto de la mujer de pie que pone la mano sobre la cabeza de la patrona.

 

La fête de la patronne, probablemente el pastel sobre monotipo más famoso de Degas que trata de los burdeles, data de 1876-1877. Otras obras, no menos importantes, marcan este periodo inesperado en la vida de Degas, como Femme nue accroupie de dos, pastel sobre monotipo en tinta negra sobre papel del Museo de Orsay (MS-1235), Scène de bordel (MS-953), anteriormente en la colección Ann y Gordon Getty, recientemente vendida en subasta, y Femme nue se peignant, pastel sobre papel del Metropolitan Museum of Art de Nueva York (MS-1380).

Del monotipo al pastel

En su artículo Les Bordels de Degas: Voyeurisme et Idiologie, Charles Bernheimer escribe: «Degas utilizó el medio [monotipo] no sólo para sí mismo, sino también como base para el claroscuro, un mapa tonal para su posterior elaboración en pastel y gouache». [Representaciones, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1987-10, vol. 20, p. 160]. 20, p. 160]. Véase también: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051224].

Esta observación se aplica más que nunca a la «transposición» del monotipo Le Client sérieux al pastel Eloge du Maquillage.

En este nuevo avance de Degas incluimos Le Client sérieux, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, un monotipo que compararemos con el pastel sobre cartón que expertizamos ahora.

 

En Éloge du Maquillage, Degas utilizó la parte superior izquierda del monotipo de Ottawa Le Client sérieux para componer su pastel, que centró en la espalda de la mujer de la derecha y en los dos rostros. Éloge du Maquillage es, por así decirlo, una variación del monotipo de Ottawa.

 

De este modo, se aleja del tema más general del monotipo, a saber, el cliente y su mirada, para centrarse más en la espalda carnosa de la mujer del centro.

La cinta negra o gargantilla -con la que a menudo adornaba sus desnudos, cantantes y bailarinas- puede verse en las dos obras de arriba. En el pastel, la gargantilla destaca sobre la piel pálida de la mujer. La otra similitud es, por supuesto, la abundante cabellera de las dos mujeres, la de la derecha, que se puede encontrar en las numerosas mujeres de sus cabarets.

Otra similitud entre el pastel y el monotipo que debemos remarcar es el espejo con su marco naranja distorsionado en el pastel, que también presenta una ligera ondulación hacia la izquierda en el monotipo.

De pastel a pastel

Para valorar Éloge du Maquillage, hemos seleccionado varios elementos para compararlos con ciertas obras de Degas, entre ellos:

 

La técnica:

Contamos unos cuarenta pasteles realzados con gouache sobre papel o cartón en el corpus actual de Degas, que pueden consultarse fácilmente en este catálogo razonado.
Se realizaron análisis técnicos y pigmentarios en profundidad en el laboratorio L & R de Madrid, que elaboró un informe fechado el 25 de julio de 2023. El informe confirma que la obra data de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y que la firma se realizó en la misma época.
Los análisis revelan dos ligeras restauraciones realizadas posteriormente, con bajo contenido de titanio en reflejos de aguada blanca craquelada, en los cuellos de las dos mujeres y la cabeza desgreñada, sobre una primera capa de aguada blanca de zinc aplicada originalmente por Degas.

 

- Color: tonos idénticos en Éloge du Maquillage, La Toilette y Danseuses en jaune. Obsérvense los trazos de pastel casi horizontales en las tres obras.

- El diseño de la mano: en la obra de Degas, las manos aparecen a menudo deformadas o incluso torpemente representadas. Para nuestra gran sorpresa, Degas era un incondicional de Jean-Dominique Ingres, como demuestran sus primeras obras. Estas distorsiones se observan no sólo en sus dibujos y pasteles, sino también en sus pinturas. En Éloge du Maquillage, la mano se pierde en la polvera y se asemeja a las manos de las obras siguientes:

- Cabello:

una de las comparaciones más llamativas es la de la abundante cabellera de la mujer del centro de Éloge du Maquillage. Es con La Chanson du chien con la que se puede establecer la comparación más evidente entre la forma del cabello y su color.

- La firma:

en nuestro artículo sobre las firmas de Degas, hemos seleccionado más de 66 firmas diferentes de pinturas, pasteles y dibujos de Degas. A modo de comparación, hemos seleccionado dos firmas correspondientes a la firma de nuestro pastel Éloge du Maquillage.