Page 4 - Maastricht 2022 Catalogue

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I N T R ODU C T I O N

We are thrilled to return to Maastricht for the second time after our shortened debut in March 2020, when the fair
closed early due to the worldwide Covid outbreak. We opened our gallery in 2016 and are proud to have already sold
paintings to such illustrious institutions as the Musée d’Orsay, The National Gallery of Australia and the Clark Art
Institute, but it is equally an honor to be included as an exhibitor at TEFAF in Maastricht, and to be part of the 35th
anniversary of this greatest of art fairs.

As our gallery name suggests, we specialize in the artists of the 19th century. It was one of the richest hundred
years in the history of Western art, a century characterized by a diversity of Schools, artists, styles and subjects.
It was a period mixed with tradition and innovation that has left us with a legacy that includes many of the
most well-known artists of all time. However, also featured in the 19th century are artists who are waiting to
be rediscovered, with so many of them having their own interesting story. Our hope is that you will also take a
closer look at these artists, such as Jean Pierre Alexandre Antigua, a first-generation Realist painter, who came to
prominence at the same time as Gustave Courbet in the early 1850s, Anthon van Rappard, who painted side by side
with Vincent van Gogh, or Auguste Toulmouche, who was Claude Monet’s cousin by marriage and who developed
a painting style that rivalled the technical virtuosity of James Tissot. This is just a small sampling of the diversity
you will find in our gallery and in our stand at Maastricht in 2022. In keeping with the tradition of our 2020
Maastricht catalogue and as a kind of “amuse-bouche,” we have singled out seven paintings to highlight followed
by a complete listing of our fair inventory.
Finally, we leave you with some thoughts on Gustave Courbet and his Portrait of a Young Girl Sleeping painted in
1847 and exhibited at the Salon of 1848. Courbet was only 28 years old when he painted this provocative work and
just embarking on a career that would challenge the course of art history. We celebrate his lifetime of audacity,
perseverance and genius with this 1846 quote from one of his letters:

There’s nothing harder in the world than making art, particularly when no one understands it.
GUST AVE COURBET, 184 6

Eric Weider Polly Sartori

Photograph by Adolphe Braun, View of Le Pont Neuf, ca. 1860
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