“I aspire only to silence.”
A paradoxical statement from a man who wrote for, edited, and even founded publications on politics and art. Felix Feneon definitely aspired to influence, and as we saw in the career of Henri-Edmond Cross yesterday, he suceeded. His influence is still with us, through his art collection.
Felix Feneon (1861-1944) was the son of a traveling salesman so, though the family lived in Burgundy, Felix was born 'on the road' in Turin, Italy.
Felix Feneon (1861-1944) was the son of a traveling salesman so, though the family lived in Burgundy, Felix was born 'on the road' in Turin, Italy.
At twenty, Feneon was employed by the Ministry of Defense in Paris while frequenting the poet Stephane Mallarme's Tuesday evening salons where his real career began. 
When Feneon saw Georges Seurat's Sunday On The Island Of La Grande Jatte in 1886, Feneon recognized something absolutely new in art that harmonized with his own absolute love of art. For Feneon, the refusal to accept new art led him to reject bourgeois society in total. Indeed, many of the artists Feneon would champion supported the Anachist movement, as he did.
Arrested in 1892, when the police found explosives in his apartment, Feneon was put on trial and it was his attorney, Thadee Natason, who offered him a position at La Revue Blanche, where Feneon fomented his version of revolution. Consistently astute, he hired Debussy to review music and Andre Gide to review literature. After La Revue folded in 1902, Feneon worked for Le Figaro and Le Matin. He was the Director of the Berhnheim-Jeune Gallery from 1906-1925.
Feneon's perceptions were acute, his writing astrigent, and he often annoyed those around him by operating on another plane of reality. Thus, his early recognition of the powerful new direction in Pierre Bonnard's first nude paintings, sombre though the palette was. Both The Indolent Woman and Blue Nude are brillaint compos
itions, portraying a mood of languid eroticism through a series of angles.Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890 became a familiar image in the Art Nouveau revival that began in the 1960s. Signac set Fénéon against a swirling background of Charles Henry's color wheel, premature psychedelia. As for the painting's long title, prolixity was not a failing of the author of Novels In Three Lines. And Feneon's verdict on the portrait by his friend Paul Signac? He hated it.
Images:
1. Paul Signac - Opus 217, 1890, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
2. Theo van Ryseelberghe - The Reading (from left to right: Feliz Dantec, Emile Verhaeren, Franci Viele-Griffen, Henri-Edmond Cross, Andre Gide, Maurice Maeterlinck), 1903, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium.
3. Georges Seurat - Poseuse de Face, 1887, Felix Feneon Collection at Musee D'Orsay, Paris.
4. Georges Seurat - Trees in Winter, 1893, Felix Feneon Collection, Musee D'Orsay, Paris.
5. Pierre Bonnard - The Indolent Woman - or - Fareniente, 1899, Felix Feneon Collection at Musee D'Orsay, Paris.
6. Pierre Bonnard - Blue Nude, 1899, Felix Feneon Collection, Musee D'Orsay, Paris.
4 comments:
I remember being intrigued by the Signac portrait when I saw it at MoMA. How funny Feneon hated it!
I think it is terrific that the refusal to accept new art led Feneon to reject bourgeois society in total. And it is not surprising that many of the artists Feneon went on to champion supported the Anachist movement, as he did. After all, artists were not mere decorators - they had to have a social conscience.
The paintings in your post do not look particularly anarchistic, but I wonder what socially aware paintings of the 1890s would have looked like.
Art, when I first saw Opus 217, I thought it was a new work. It's curious that Opus 217 has become Signac's best known work, when the theory behind it has been forgotten. But that's also the case with the dream theories of Freud and Jung. Artists are still using them, but they've been largely discredited by practitioners.
Hels, the categories were a bit different in Feneon's day, I think. The avalanche of scientific discoveries promised great improvements for ordinary lives (many of them fulfilled, although we're not always sufficiently grateful)and artists considered themselves part of that vanguard. The documentary impulse in art was viewed as old fashioned. In light of dada, surrealism, pop art, etc. , that makes sense. The documentary impulse is around, but through others means.
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