Three years ago, a Barcelona art collector bought a painting by one of the masters of impressionism, Edgar Degas (1834-1917), for only 926 euros at an auction on an intermediary website for buying and selling between users, Todocolección. Éloge du maquillage (In Praise of Makeup) was acquired by an individual from another who must have thought that what he had in his hands was a crude fake. This has been confirmed by the PhD in Art History Judith Urbano Lorente to EL PAÍS in a telephone conversation, following the information provided this Wednesday by The Punt Avui.
Degas’ work (now it is) was presented last Monday at the French Institute in Madrid and on Tuesday “it was on display for 20 minutes at the Ateneo” in Madrid, during a conference of Michael Schulmanworld authority on the painter and who has certified the authenticity of the Of gas. Urbano advised a consulting company that the new owner of the painting hired when he bought it to know “traceability”, history, of this pastel on cardboard that has the artist’s signature in the lower right margin. “He thought it could be a good work, although the person who sold it to him told him that he did not have any certification,” he tells this medium. Joan Arjona Rey, from Consultores Rey, which has represented the new owner. The other art historian who has collaborated in this case is Álvaro Pascual, from the University of Valladolid.
The previous owner is a descendant of the banker Joan Llonch Salas, patron and president of Banco Sabadell in 1976, shortly before his death. The mystery is why this person placed an ad in Todocolección that said: “Oil painting on canvas with Degas signature.” It didn’t say, obviously, that it was by Degas. The new owner bought it for 926 euros in a bid that had started at one euro. “I have spoken on the phone with the current owner and he has confirmed that it is true. Then, when he bought it, he wanted to make sure what he had and contacted the consultant, who in turn contacted me,” says the historian.
Borja Sánchez Trillo (EFE)
Schulman explained on Monday about this small work, measuring 48 by 62.5 centimeters, that he came to the conclusion that it was a Of gas “after an exhaustive analysis of pigments, a meticulous study carried out with X-rays and photographs, among other techniques.” It was also important to check that the signature of the work was integrated and had not been added later. This expert, who has cataloged 1,750 works by Degas around the world, added that Makeup Praise (1879) came from another work by the French painter, Le client sérieux (The serious client). “Degas used to work on his paintings from a scene or character from another previous work.”
About the fate of the new Of gas, Arjona He declares that he does not know where the work is located. As for their value, he estimates that these types of pastels on the art market are around seven or eight million euros, “although some have reached 12 million.”
![The art historian Judith Urbano, last Monday at the French Institute in Madrid.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/KRXJ4L57ALRGKSSMTLGATYPZ5I.jpg?auth=202b758eda74735e913bd9a5dde9694fdc4edcac23598462561081c9ada5e420&width=414)
Makeup Praise It represents “a brothel scene, an important theme in the works of Degas, who drew many of his nudes in places he knew well,” according to Schulman. In the painting you can see two women, one of them in profile and the other in the center powdering her nose reflected in a mirror. Schulman recalled that in Spain there are few Of gas, three in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, one in the Montserrat Museum and some in private collections.
Tracing the history of the work has been possible “thanks to several labels” that remain attached to different parts of the painting, says Urbano, dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the International University of Catalonia. The story goes back to its first owner, the Barcelona painter and engraver Julià Bastinos, “who in 1872 was in Paris and had contact with the Urrabietas, a family of engravers” who were also in the French capital.
It is known that Bastinos bought the work in 1887 “from a letter that Degas sent to his friend the opera singer Jean-Baptiste Faure, in which he tells him that a certain Mr. B. has bought a painting from him for 3,000 francs.” Bastinos, from a very wealthy family, returned to Barcelona and in 1904 he went to work in Egypt. “In Cairo he put a luxurious frame on the painting, as one of the labels points out.” He died in Alexandria, in 1918, just a year after Degas.
The Bastinos family recovered the painting, which returned to Barcelona in the hands of Antoni Bastinos, Julià’s brother. The next clue, and label of the painting, places it in the Pedralbes monastery, in 1934, after a law of the Generalitat of Catalonia that wanted to protect historical heritage. Another label, in the Civil War, has the letterhead of Recovered from the enemy, of the Francoist Ministry of National Education, in January 1939, when the dictator’s troops entered Barcelona. “Then the painting was returned to the family that owned it.”
However, in 1940 the textile industrialist bought it. Joan Llonch Salas, “a patron and art collector”, who acquired it from Francisco Mario Ricart, as stated in the receipt that the heirs of this businessman attached to the auction on the Todocolección website, reports Noelia Ramírez. Most likely, Ricart was the intermediary for the Bastinos.
Joan Llonch became president of the Sabadell Academy of Fine Arts, which is now chaired by his grandson, and in 1976 he was named president of Banco Sabadell. “The last label,” adds the historian, is from the Barcelona art gallery Gaspar, where Llonch allowed the painting to be exhibited for the only time to the public at Christmas 1952, along with works by Picasso, Renoir and Van Gogh.
After a century and a half of adventures, Makeup Praise It is somewhere in Catalonia and someone, no one knows where, will probably be tearing their hair out for having sold it for a undersell.
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