Belle Epoque Painting : "a Fight At The Masked Ball"

Belle Epoque painting "A brawl at the masked ball", oil on canvas 34 X 54cm mounted in a slightly uneven black and gold molded frame 54 X 71 cm. When I acquired this painting (in francs!), it represented a small fortune... I was of course thinking of Jean Béraud, but was quickly undeceived by the competent authorities and since then I have been looking for which author to give this exceptional work to. which the photos do not do justice, the light hanging impasto and brushstrokes, because if the worldly painters were numerous to give in these genre scenes, few practiced them in a reduced format like this one. Perhaps Gervex?... Real snapshot, we understand that the man disguised as Pierrot has made overly advanced advances to a Lady who faints from it, maintained by her friends and whose husband defies the indelicate who is there. left his hat, dragged away in spite of himself by a friend inviting him to leave. If the characters are extremely individualized and detailed, the quasi-impressionist touch of the backgrounds lightens the scene by focusing attention on them. Only one is looking at the viewer, which leads me to think that it could be a self-portrait in the painting. I am delivering this painting to you as long as I can still go up to my attic where I have set up my "ripener", namely a kind of painting library where I stored quality works, but with an illegible signature, even anonymous in waiting for serendipity to make me come across his brother in a catalogue, a book or an exhibition, thus allowing me to identify them… Oh! It still happens to me three or four times a year, sometimes on works acquired 30 years earlier, sometimes the previous month. If an Internet user has a lead, I thank him in advance and let him know that it is better to deal with a tall skinny man than a fat dwarf! Do not hesitate to ask us by email or telephone for additional information or photos. We have many objects and paintings to restore in our shop in Pau for which we prefer to sell on site, preferably in batches! Other photos and many other objects in our shops in Pau and Biarritz and on our website: galerielhoste.com.