96. Fishermen on the Margarita Island

1884, Bucureşti - 1959, Bucureşti

Selling price

EUR 73.566

Session

Thu, 15 December 2022 19:00

France during the first decade of the 20th Century - the itinerary close to Monet, in Giverny, the first journey to northern Africa (1911), the three years spent on the Japanese Islands (1912-1915), the trip to New York (1916), the short journey to the Antilles, the years spent in Venezuela (1917-1919) or in Spain, as well as in the Maghreb area in northern Africa (1921) - mark around 15 years in which Mützner discovers, works, exhibits and plays an influence on artistic movements across three continents. In 1916, he heads off to Venezuela, where he would remain for three years and would work intensively in Caracas, Margarita Island, San Juan, Curacao, or the Antilles. The Caribbean would have an immediate impact and, although the Japanese picturesque was still fresh in his imaginary, it was there that Mützner would complete one of the most interesting and exotic pictorial cycles of his career. On this occasion, he renews his chromatic, the palette would resonate with the new applied shades, and the volumes will become even more vibrant, thanks to the newly executed light and shadow valorisations. He redirects his attention towards the violent light and the luxuriant vegetation of the Tropics, which had initially overwhelmed him in Ceylon, and which he rediscovers with even greater delight in the Caribbean Sea, Porto-Rico and Venezuela, in Caracas and Margarita Island. In the charming environment of the Venezuelan seaside and in the Caribbean Sea, he painted scenes from the lives of the fishermen of the Antilles, men with strong, sunburnt bodies, a world in motion, with an emerald green sea on the background. He was declared Honorary Consul of Venezuela in Bucharest, and it was only because of his firm refusal that this country's national flag was not hoisted outside his home in Strada Plantelor.

References

ANDREESCU, Viorica, "Samuel Mutzner", Meridiane Publishing House, 1974 ANDREESCU, Viorica, "The painter Samuel Mutzner in Japan and America" in "Art history studies and research", tome 19, no. 1, pp. 67-82, 1972, Bucharest

Dimensions

width 66 cm, height 52.5 cm, custom 52,5 × 66 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed bottom right, with brown, "S. MÜTZNER"

Research information

The artwork is reproduced in the monography "Samuel Mützner", Rodica Marian, Antet Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005, at p. 72, under the title "Pescari în insula Margarita".

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