American and European Art

Lot note: Born in in 1928, Bernard Buffet came of age during a tumultuous time, both artistically and politically. From 1944-45, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, where he studied the figurative tradition. Like many young painters in post-World War II Europe, Buffet reacted against Abstraction and instead embraced visual reality. He joined Homme-Temoin, a group of French artists who promoted an expressive Social Realism. They endeavored to create paintings that were authentic and direct, works that would more deeply speak to the common sense of the populace. Buffet would go on to establish his highly distinctive style, characterized by sharp, craggy linear forms, muted colors, and solitary mood that seemed to express the existential alienation and spiritual isolation of the postwar generation. Executed in 1955, La Tour Eiffel successfully articulates the atmospheric melancholy of Buffet's early work. The composition depicts a view southeast across the Seine, looking directly toward the Eiffel Tower and the Ecole Militaire. A sense of remoteness pervades the scene, which is devoid of the usual crowds that populate one of the most well known attractions of Paris. The dark outlines and grisaille palette further emphasize the subdued setting. Interestingly, Buffet includes in the background la Grande Roue, a Ferris wheel built on the Champs de Mars for the 1900 Universal Exposition. At almost 350 feet in height, it was at the time the tallest panoramic wheel in the world. However, the gigantic wheel's popularity waned after World War I and it was torn down in 1920, before the present work was created. Rather than a direct recording of reality, Buffet instead presents a sepia-tinged ghost, a nostalgic remembrance of the City of Light's vanished joie de vivre. The year La Tour Eiffel was painted, Buffet was awarded the first prize by the magazine Connaissance des Arts, which named the ten best post-war artists. The artist was already highly successful by this time, with his first one-man exhibition in 1947 at the Galerie des Impressions d'Art. The following year he was awarded the Prix de la Critique, at the age of 20. In 1958, Galerie Charpentier held the first retrospective of his work. Buffet would continue to be enormously successful throughout his career, with works exhibited worldwide and held in renowned collections, including the Tate Gallery, London; Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. His career culminated in 1973, with the opening of the Bernard Buffet Museum in Surugadaira, Japan.