The permanent display of the Scharf-Gerstenberg collection is superb, but I was actually here to see the special exhibition ‘The Eccentric Gaze: Goya, Daumier and Toulouse-Lautrec’. I went in at 11:45 (after warming up in the very nice café). Works by these three artists, from their three different generations, were among the cornerstones of Otto Gerstenberg’s historical collection, now reconstructed after being dissipated during the war.
Paintings by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) document the events of the Peninsular War of 1808-1814 while his prints make biting criticism of the grotesque social conditions at the time. He mocks the nobility – often showing them as donkeys – despite being employed as court painter. The caricatures of freelance artist Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) supported the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 in France – he spent six months in prison in 1832 for being critical of the government – and he continued to create overtly political caricatures until he lost his sight in 1872. Coming from an aristocratic family in southern France, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) became a sharp observer of a social class that had slid into a state of decadence.
The three are united in showing through their etchings and caricatures and drawings how individuals relate to the society around them. They adopt the eccentric perspective of outsiders, and their subjects are shown as pompous, or comical, or ridiculous. Through the strong medium of printmaking they show both the glittering and the dark sides of society. The sharp contrasts in Goya’s etchings are echoed both in Daumier’s caricatures and in Toulouse-Lautrec’s stage drawings, with their rich visual effects; examples from the Gerstenberg Collection show that Toulouse-Lautrec clearly studied and responded to the earlier works by Goya and Daumier.
The exhibition was exceptional, and I enjoyed it immensely. Part of it was arranged in groups of three pictures, one by each artist, with a common subject, and the influences were obvious. Elsewhere, each had his own space. Daumier was new to me and I liked both his caricatures and his oil paintings, a few of which were on display.
I would have liked to spend some time back in the Scharf-Gerstenberg main collection, but as this is my last full day in Berlin I had to press on with my schedule for the west side of the city, and move on to Helmut Newton.
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