Sold – Monet Recommends the Influential Louis Vauxcelles to be Curator of the Musee du Luxembourg

Claude Oscar Monet was the founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement’s philosophy of expressing one’s perceptions before nature.  The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise.  He was also one of the Impressionists whose fervent minds moved to the early 20th century movement, Fauvism.  This style, while still focusing on natural subjects, used strong colors and bold brush strokes to illicit emotion. 

Perspective and space, so important to the artist in his Impressionist days, would take less prominent roles in his pictures.  As time went by , the idea transcribed in colored notations took precedence over the reality of nature.  A new type of vibrancy rang through some of the painter’s works. In the "Weeping Willow" study from the Musee Marmottan, flame-like streaks of color run down the thick trunk and abstract shreds of green tumble down from the upper edge of the composition.  Between 1916 and 1926, he painted the "Grandes decorations" for the two oval rooms in the Orangerie where they are permanently installed.   Monet had taken painting as close to abstraction as could be done.

The most faithful and most effective supporter of the Fauve movement was Louis Vauxcelles. A hot-tempered and uncompromising man, he had made his column in Gil Blas an extremely important vehicle of opinion. He came to be more than a critic, advising dealers, and showing painters what line they ought to follow.  It is said that Vauxcelles, in admiring a work by Matisse, coined the term Fauvism, which stems from the French word "Fauve," or wild beast. 

In 1925, the influential curator of the Musee du Luxembourg, Léonce Bénédite, died, and the arts community of the powerful institution set out to find a replacement. Vauxcelles was a logical choice, as he had become synonymous with the artistic movement that came after Impressionism. Monet, an early supporter of the Fauvism, and an advocate of Vauxcelles, urged his appointment to the newly vacant position.

Autograph Letter Signed, Giverny par Vernon, 5th June [19]25, on his printed stationery. To a friend, likely someone responsible for promoting Vauxcelles as candidate. "A brief note to ask only that you add my name to the list of petitioners in favor of the nomination of Mr. Vauxelle to the post of Curator of the Musee du Luxembourg."

Though Monet’s letter was unsuccessful (Vauxcelles was not chosen), it is a wonderful connection between two figures, each responsible for the naming of successive French movements.