CELSO LAGAR ARROYO (Ciudad Rodrigo, León, 1891 - Seville, 1966). "Porto del Circo Medrano". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner.

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19th & 20th Century Contemporary Art - Select...

By Setdart Auction House

Jun 17, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-06-17 06:15:00 2021-06-17 06:15:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : 19th & 20th Century Contemporary Art - Select Lots https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/19th-20th-century-contemporary-art---select-lots-7081
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• Lot Description
  CELSO LAGAR ARROYO (Ciudad Rodrigo, León, 1891 - Seville, 1966). "Porto del Circo Medrano". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. With label on the back of the Galerie Vildrac. Measurements: 75 x 55 cm; 98 x 80 cm (frame). Circus scenes, so in vogue at the beginning of the 20th century, became a key motif in Celso Lagar's vast artistic imagination. Previously, great masters such as Edgar Degás, George Seurat or Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, turned their attention to this eccentric spectacle, immortalizing in their canvases the bohemian and free life, far from social conventions, that surrounded the circus world. Directly influenced by Pablo Picasso's cubism, Lagar's language is reminiscent of fauvist and even Goyaesque styles, although his formal moderation, beyond the School of Paris, places him within a progressive modernity, rather than within a strict avant-garde. In the work that concerns us, "Porto du Cirque Medrano", Lagar pours melancholy and sweetness in equal parts. We find ourselves in front of a full-length portrait of a clown from the Cirque Medrano in Paris, a meeting place for artists such as Picasso and Braque in the Montmartre district, who looks directly at the viewer, in an interior crowded with the props of the show. The palette of colors used, sober but bold, denotes Lagar's pictorial skill. Celso Lagar began his training in the field of sculpture under the guidance of Miguel Blay in Madrid. His teacher advised him to travel to Paris to complete his studies and, after spending a year in Barcelona, he traveled to the French capital for the first time in 1911. Lagar's career, both personally and artistically, can be divided into four distinct stages, marked by the two World Wars. The first of these periods was that of apprenticeship, in Madrid, Barcelona and Paris, where he came into contact with artists such as Amadeo Modigliani. This stage ended when he was forced to leave Paris at the outbreak of the Great War. He settled in Barcelona but held several exhibitions in the French capital, which would later serve as a letter of introduction upon his return to the city after the war, in 1919. By then Lagar was already a consolidated artist, and he settled definitively in Paris. He had regular exhibitions in the best Parisian galleries such as Berthe Weil, Percier, Zborowski, Barreiro, Brouant, and Druet. His style reached its personal maturity and he devoted himself fully to painting, leaving sculpture behind. The outbreak of World War II marked the end of Lagar's golden age. He emigrated to the French Pyrenees, and his return to the recently liberated city of Paris where he did not obtain the repercussion he expected, since the collecting public demanded new contents. After his wife fell ill in 1956, Lagar fell into a deep depression, and he was hospitalized in a psychiatric center. He stopped painting for good and in 1964 he returned to Spain, spending his last years at his sister's house in Seville. Today Lagar's work is represented in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco Casa Lis, the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the Petit Palais in Geneva, the Fine Arts Museums of La Rochelle, Castres and Honfleur (France) and in prestigious collections such as Crane Kallman (London), Zborowski (Paris) and Mapfre (Madrid).
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