Frenhofer

2004

Nicolas Poussin: Portrait du paintre E. Frenhofer

19. Jh
From the estate of Ms H. T. Markovitch

Nicolas Poussin: Portrait du paintre E. Frenhofer

verso

Nicolas Poussin: Portrait du paintre E. Frenhofer

19. Jh.
Oil paint on wood, 13,7 x 11,2cm

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Despite all dangers for the artist – resulting from the risks of self-deception, social isolation and the dissent between perception and artistic assignment – dedication is the most essential basis for binding work.

The subject is a small panel painting, appropriately framed, showing the artist Edouard Frenhofer the month of his death. It is a 19th-century copy in the style of Nicolas Poussin that was last in Dora Maar’s possession before the Frenhofer Society acquired it in an auction of her estate in 1988. Today the image often appears as a loan in art exhibitions honouring the painter and his uncompromising pictorial achievement.

Background

I
Edouard Frenhofer (born around 1540, died in April 1613), ‘Sole student of Mabuse (Jan Gossaert) whose tradition of bas-relief painting he continued. Well-known works: Dido résiste le vice, Henri IV. entrée en La Rochelle, La Belle Noiseuse. He was in search of a pictorial style with a bold spatial vitality. Frenhofer was an important source of inspiration for Poussin.’ Trans. of Encyclopédie des arts et métiers, Lyon, 1964
Frenhofer is the artist who creates ‘frenetically’ – as suggested by the Greek word ‘phren’, or diaphragm, which was considered the seat of the soul.

‘The gaps within trees are made by particles of illuminated air, which are considerably smaller [in volume] than the tree, and perception of the gaps is therefore lost before the perception of the tree itself. But this does not mean that the interstices cease to exist.’ The Notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci

‘Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all.’ André Breton, Nadja

Only the unconquered fragment contains art in its entirety. That which is finished is for idiots who cannot imagine art and need a foreign work. Peter Bux, Im Wörterheim, Leipzig, 2017

II
In their search for abstraction and thus possibly a higher reality, Frenhofer’s late works were not regarded as artistically valid in his lifetime. His audience saw little talent in his radical artistic personality. Frenhofer’s self-devoted method of working and his quest for the absolute led to an irresolvable conflict with his artistic milieu, a conflict he solved by destroying his studio and then committing suicide. Not one of his late works survived undoubtedly due to the conservational circumstances alongside the strangeness and distress caused by his works: part of his mysterious intention was ‘to paint what we breathe’, but he also experimented with painting techniques. Mostly written testimonies exist on Frenhofer, such as those in Chronique scandaleuse (1611 edition), primarily regarding the circumstances of his death, and merely a few anonymous copies of his pictures exist. It was only in early 20th-century Paris that Frenhofer received the attention he deserved thanks to the surrealists’ discovery of his work.
For further information on Frenhofer’s life and oeuvre, see Balzac’s trivialising short story The Unknown Masterpiece.

The so-called ‘Frenhofer syndrome’ is used today to refer to the psychosocial and somatic consequences of total marginalisation experienced by an obliviously ecstatic visionary as their life takes its course.

III
The panel itself – originally of German origin (‘Nationalgalerie Berlin, Inv. Nr. 12’ is written on the back of the frame) – came to France under unknown circumstances. It was acquired from the estate of Mme H. Th. Markovitch (Dora Maar), which was sold by the auction house PIASA in 1998. The provenance is interesting because of connections to Picasso. ‘Picasso pointed to a window in Rue de Savoie 6 and said: “Up there Dora Maar is bored to death. Tomorrow I’ll give her the Frenhofer who caught atoms of Venus like me.”’ (Jean Cocteau, Journal 1937–42, p. 53) The house on Rue des Grands Augustins 7, Paris, where Picasso set up his studio (and painted Guernica among other works) was also where Frenhofer’s friend, the painter Porbus, lived some 330 years ago. For this reason, there is a definite connection, albeit faint through the passage of time, to the myth of Frenhofer. And both Picasso and Maar were aware of this. Frenhofer’s austerely authentic mission to bear artistic innovation to the world is fulfilled by the Promethean motif of the light bringer. Picasso, who was fascinated by the world of gods, called his dog Kazbek after the rock to which Prometheus was chained and where he suffered his gruelling torments.

IV
‘Despite all dangers for the artist – resulting from the risks of self-deception, social isolation and the dissent between perception and artistic assignment – dedication is the most essential basis for binding work.’ From the Manifesto of the Frenhofer Society.

A more recent representative of the Frenhofer brotherhood that we should briefly recall is the postman of Hauterives (Département Drôme), M. Cheval, who built a palais idéal in his garden from 1879 to 1912. He claimed to have been inspired to do so by a bizarrely eroded chunk of sedimentary rock over which he tripped as he delivered the mail (the bliss of unanticipated experience). With this ‘stumbling block’ – put onto a pedestal – the postman crowned his work, finished 20 years later, in honour of nature. He completed the ensemble with a free-standing terrace from which he could ideally admire his personal palais idéal.

______ Power reserve

WE LIVE IN AMBIGUITY.

WE ARE BETWEEN ALL

THAT TAKES PLACE.

WE SET THE STANDARDS,

WHICH,

SOONER OR LATER

BECOME THE STANDARDS.

BECAUSE WE HAVE EVERYTHING,

WE DON’T NEED ANYTHING.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SKIN?

YOU RUN AROUND AND AROUND.

YOU WILL NEVER GET

WHAT WE HAVE.

EVEN

IF WE WOULD GIVE IT TO YOU.

WE ARE SO BIG

THAT NO ONE SEES US.

WE CARRY THE WORLD.

What is was real

2004

Mr. Cheval bringing home the stumbling block

2013
painted by Ferdinand Cheval

Programme of events

3rd congress of the Frenhofer Society in Temuco, Chile
2007

Programme of events

3rd congress of the Frenhofer Society in Temuco, Chile
2007

Frenhofer

Nicolas Poussin: Portrait du paintre E. Frenhofer

Nicolas Poussin: Portrait du paintre E. Frenhofer

Nicolas Poussin: Portrait du paintre E. Frenhofer

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What is was real

Mr. Cheval bringing home the stumbling block

Programme of events

Programme of events

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