Lot n° 219
Estimation :
40000 - 60000
EUR
Register for the sale on drouot.com
Leave absentee bid
Your amount
EUR
Bid by phone
Bid by phone
Your amount
EUR
Cuzco school circa 1750< - Lot 219
Cuzco school circa 1750<
Jesus carrying his cross, surrounded by an angel and a virgin statue with child and Inca symbols
Oil on canvas and brocateado on Christ
171 x 122 cm
One of Europe's most important collections of Andean Baroque".
Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET (Part 1)
When I met Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET some fifteen years ago, I discovered that they had built up one of Europe's largest collections devoted to Andean Baroque.
This shared passion has led them to travel to South America since the 1980s. As a result, they have been able to lend numerous works to museums in order to share the art of this continent with the general public. When the New World was discovered, the Spanish religious congregations brought with them a European style of art, followed by a hybrid style in which Indians and mestizos painted religious pictures, but with many Indian and particularly Inca aspects. We see the rejection of perspective, the addition of bright colors, small birds messengers of the gods, harquebusier angels seen nowhere else in the world. Added to this is the famous "brocateado", the delicate gold paint that highlights the vestments of the Holy Family and the saints.
The painter and sculptor Fernando Botero (1932-2023) lived a miserable life in New York. Joachim Jean Aberbach helped him, finding him a gallery to exhibit and sell his work. A grateful Fernando Botero introduced him to Andean Baroque during a trip to South America. Charmed, Mr. Aberbach began collecting Andean paintings. He also acquired works by Botero.
In New York, Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET met Mrs. Suzan Aberbach, widow of Joachim Jean
Aberbach, and her collection of paintings. The paintings were for sale, and Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET were able to acquire them, thus beginning an exceptional collection.
Over the years, as they wandered through galleries and auction rooms in various countries, Mr. and Mrs.
Gérard PRIET were able to enrich their collection and deepen their knowledge of this art by researching works dealing with Andean Baroque art.
Between 2008 and 2019, museum curators organized exhibitions based on works loaned by Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET. These included the museums of Montbrison, Le Mans, Castres and Sarrebourg,
Versailles (musée Lambinet), Paris (musée de la chasse), La Rochelle (musée du Nouveau Monde), Auch (musée des
Amériques), Paris (musée du quai Branly- Jacques Chirac), Lyon (musée de Fourvière), Paris (musée du Louvre- Grand
Palais).
The friendships they have forged, notably with university professor Suzanne Stratton-Pruitt in New York, and with Mr. Ramon Mujica Pinilla in Lima, author of numerous works on Andean art, have been invaluable in their knowledge of this art.
Today, Mr. and Mrs. Gérard PRIET have decided to pass the torch to other enthusiasts and institutions who will continue to develop the fruits of their passion.
Alexis Bordes
Provenance:
Peyton Wright Gallery, Sante Fe (N.M), USA
Private Collection, Sante Fe, 2007
Judith E. Hilburg, Vallejo, California, USA, 1976
Judith E. Hilburg, London, Great Britain, 1974
Exhibitions:
Peyton Wright Gallery "17th Annual Art of the devotion" 2009 and "18th Annual Art of the devotion" 2010
Versailles September 17 - December 24, 2011, page 19 of catalog
Ferveur d'Amérique latine, Musée Lambinet
Montbrison, Secret des couleurs de l'Europe aux Andes, Musée d'Allard from March 21 to September 27, 2015, page 4 of the exhibition catalog.
Versailles, Notre Dame des Armées. Lyon, Andes Célestes exhibition,
Musée d'art religieux de Fourvière, March 18 to June 30, 2017, page 62 of the exhibition catalog.
La Rochelle, Gold, Angels and Roses exhibition. December 18, 2014 to March 31
Musée du Nouveau Monde, extended until September 21.
Baroque painting from the Andes exhibition, Auch (Musée des Amériques), April 4 to June 1, 2014, extended to September 21.
The complicity and richness of this composition are equal to the subject represented: Christ carrying his Cross surrounded by angels bearing the instruments of the Passion. In the lower center, a virgin statue recalls
Mama Ocllo, Cuzco's founding goddess. This is not a classical representation of the Virgin as the mother of Jesus, but a statue seen from the front and idealized as a symbol.
The abundant details of this composition recall the Peruvian identity of the artist(s) behind this work, hence the importance given to the feathers in the angels' headdresses.
Christ, Man of Sorrows is represented by
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue