Moise Kisling
Scene de Bistrot, 1916
Charcoal on paper
10 x 13 3/4 in, 25 x 35 cm
Signed and dated
Moise Kisling was born in Krakow, Poland, and studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts until 1910, when he moved to Montparnasse in Paris. In 1913 he took a...
Moise Kisling was born in Krakow, Poland, and studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts until 1910, when he moved to Montparnasse in Paris. In 1913 he took a studio in Montparnasse, where he lived for the next 27 years. His studio welcomed the “upper crust” of the art world: Modigliani, firstly, but also famous writers like Cocteau, Radiguet and Max Jacob, giving Kisling the name of ‘King of Montparnasse’.
The term Ecole de Paris, referring to foreign artists working in Paris, roughly between 1910-1930 and specifically in Montparnasse, was coined in 1925 by the critic Andre Warnod. The school is today most often recognised as the confluence of Jewish immigrant artists in the early 1900s with the emerging modernist aesthetic that had essentially been transposed from Montmartre to Montparnasse.
The new generation of Jews in Eastern Europe were denied both freedom of movement and of expression and access to higher education in arts in their home countries. Paris became an almost mythical city that represented for them a refuge, a haven and a centre for the arts, which could offer them not only the observance of human rights but a better and more exciting way of life. There was an unsurpassable passion for art in this Jewish community at the turn of 20th century.
In 1916, Kisling was coming back to Paris after travelling in Spain. That year he was closer than ever to Modigliani. About this friendship Kisling wrote: “he was coming to my studio every single day; we would work together and often have the same models”. Painted the same year, “Scene de Bistrot”, presents a distinctively Parisian scene. Ladies and gentlemen are having glasses of wine during their lunch time break in a “brasserie” that serves the typical “Choucroute jambon”. With its subtle lines and its quite atmosphere “Scene de Bistrot” becomes a timeless episode.
During his lifetime, Kisling exhibited at the Whitney Museum and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. A retrospective of Kisling’s work was organised in Paris in 1984 at the National Galleries of the Grand Palais. Recognised as a key Ecole de Paris artist, he is represented in important museums and private collections throughout the world. The largest collection of his works can be seen at the Musée du Petit Palais in Geneva, Switzerland.
The term Ecole de Paris, referring to foreign artists working in Paris, roughly between 1910-1930 and specifically in Montparnasse, was coined in 1925 by the critic Andre Warnod. The school is today most often recognised as the confluence of Jewish immigrant artists in the early 1900s with the emerging modernist aesthetic that had essentially been transposed from Montmartre to Montparnasse.
The new generation of Jews in Eastern Europe were denied both freedom of movement and of expression and access to higher education in arts in their home countries. Paris became an almost mythical city that represented for them a refuge, a haven and a centre for the arts, which could offer them not only the observance of human rights but a better and more exciting way of life. There was an unsurpassable passion for art in this Jewish community at the turn of 20th century.
In 1916, Kisling was coming back to Paris after travelling in Spain. That year he was closer than ever to Modigliani. About this friendship Kisling wrote: “he was coming to my studio every single day; we would work together and often have the same models”. Painted the same year, “Scene de Bistrot”, presents a distinctively Parisian scene. Ladies and gentlemen are having glasses of wine during their lunch time break in a “brasserie” that serves the typical “Choucroute jambon”. With its subtle lines and its quite atmosphere “Scene de Bistrot” becomes a timeless episode.
During his lifetime, Kisling exhibited at the Whitney Museum and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. A retrospective of Kisling’s work was organised in Paris in 1984 at the National Galleries of the Grand Palais. Recognised as a key Ecole de Paris artist, he is represented in important museums and private collections throughout the world. The largest collection of his works can be seen at the Musée du Petit Palais in Geneva, Switzerland.
Literature
Jean Kisling (ed) & Joseph Kessel, 'Kisling 1891-1953', 1971, cat. No. 9