133. Harlequin and Spanish Woman

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133. Harlequin and Spanish Woman

Iosif Iser

1881, București - 1958, Bucureşti

Estimate:

EUR 9.000 - 16.000

Sold

EUR 13.000

References

CRĂCIUN, Eugen, "Iser", Ed. Căminul Artei, București, 1945
MIHALACHE, Marin, "Iosif Iser", Ed. Meridiane, București, 1982

oil on canvas, 64 x 54 cm, 54x64, signed upper left, in brown, "ISER"

The Commedia dell'Arte, a source so inexhaustible throughout the old representative history, influenced the 20th century arts, too, either in Symbolist poetry or in modernist painting, particularly Avant-garde. The motif of the harlequin and the dancer came to the attention of Iser as soon as he came into contact with French culture, after his first trips to Paris. His attraction for Expressionism, as an aesthetic drive of the whole plastic approach, proved to be that which pushed Iser towards psychological painting, the one most entitled to understand and reproduce the feelings of his models. This was also validated by the spirit of the times, for which the representation of the Harlequin had become a true discourse on the duality of life and, consequently, of figurative art as well. Picasso, Juan Gris, André Derain, Emil Nolde or Amedeo Modigliani are just some of the names of the first decades of the twentieth century that have restructured and revalued the emblematic, yet blasé image of the famous characters of human comedy. Enchanted by the animation of the Frenchman Emile Reynauld "Pauvre Pierrot", an experiment of optical theatre, before the cinema, which had caused quite a commotion in its time, Iser made some early works depicting the unrequited love of Pierrot for the ballerina Colombina. A first approach of the theme, under the direct influence of the classical triangle - Harlequin, Colombina and Pierrot - was made by Iosif Iser in 1912 when, at the command of Dimitrie Burileanu (eminent politician and diplomat), the artist decorated his mansion in Turnu Severin with such a composition. Years later, in the 1930s, the National Bank acquired the famous "Harlequin and Dancer" on the recommendation of the same Burianu. The theme persists during the interwar period, but the most significant revival of the subject occurs after 1940, when Iser's visual universe was confined by the anti-Semitic laws passed after 1938-1940. The novelty of this painting lies in the mélange between the famous theme of the Harlequin and the Spanish subject, Colombina being in this case one of the Spanish women painted by Iser in 1930, after his Iberian stay.

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