Lot 63: ALBERT MARIE ADOLPHE DAGNAUX (FRENCH, 1861-1933)

"AVENUE DU BOIS-DE-BOULOGNE;-CLUB DES PANNES" signed oil on canvas 84 by 120 in. 213.4 by 304.8 cm. This work depicts a gathering of the "Club des Pannes", a group of society gazers formed in January 1886 which Marcel Proust describes in his Remembrance of Things Past. The setting is the Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, near the Etoile; the occasion is "La Journee des Drags", an annual procession of the Society of Riding and Coaching which occurred on the Friday preceding the Grand Prix in June. Exhibited: Paris, Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Salon du Champ de Mars, Exposition de 1893, p. xii, No. 281, illustrated with a sketch by the artist for the central trio, p. 144 Literature: Charles Yriarte, Le Figaro, May 9, 1893, p. 1, "...Suivons l'ordre et debutons par M. Dagnaux, qui a l'entree a gauche, expose le Club des Pannes, une toile concue sous l'influence de M. Roll, mais l'artiste se reprend, se venge en portrait bien assis de M.T.C." Alfred de Lostalot, L'illustration, May 13, 1893, p. 381 Auguste Dalligny, Le Journal des Arts. Chronique de l'Hotel de Drouot, June 7, 1893, p. 1, "...un grand tableaux, aux colorations vives et gaies, rempli de types elegants de Parisiens et de Parisiennes qui causent et flirtent, amusants et bien groupes, le club des Pannes, au commencement de l'avenue du Bois de Boulogne." Henri Bouchot, "Les Salons de 1893," Gazette des Beaux Arts, June 1893, p. 470.