The Fantastic Félix Fénéon

Take a good look at this man; he was very famous in Paris a century ago.

You might think he was a magician, possibly a circus ringmaster or a fairground proprietor. Wrong on all counts; he was an anarchist, albeit one who worked for the War Ministry, and he became one of the most influential art critics and collectors in France. His name was Félix Fénéon, and you can find out all about him and the art he championed in an absolutely splendid exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie in the French capital, a show that's full of surprises and delights.

Fénéon was a huge promoter of Neo-Impressionism (a description he coined), and it was the Pointillist Paul Signac who portrayed him in the painting above. That swirling, mesmerising, multi-coloured, almost psychedelic background? It was based on the pattern for a kimono in a collection of Japanese pictures that Signac owned. This was cutting-edge art in 1891, and Signac and Fénéon were at the sharp end.

Fénéon is certainly a distinctive figure, with that remarkable goatee beard. "This man who made himself look like an American Mephistopheles," the poet Remy de Gourmont said of him.

What made Fénéon so influential? He had an eye for art, certainly, picking out painters whose work seemed outrageously avant-garde at the time, Signac and that other Pointillist pioneer, Georges Seurat, in particular. He was an avid and groundbreaking collector of African art, too, as can be seen from examples dotted about this show. But he had a way with language as well, a fantastic capacity to translate the visual into words on a page.

This show is particularly strong on Seurat and Signac, featuring works that really are beautiful. Take this set of three small nudes by Seurat, on display right at the start of the show, images that were favourites among Fénéon's collection. They were made in preparation for a much larger painting, Models, which is now in Philadelphia.

Models also references Seurat's most remarkable painting, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, and a study for that work which was in the Fénéon collection can be seen at the Orangerie too.

Seurat's nudes are juxtaposed with some African sculptures that illustrate the breadth of Fénéon's artistic interests. He was one of the first European collectors of African art, though he never actually travelled to the continent.

Five images of the Channel coast by Seurat grace one wall. This was painting that was "austere, with a bitter, salty tang," in Fénéon's words. It feels much less austere to us today, a century-and-a-quarter on. Sure, there's a plainness to these pictures, but these are images that feel calm and reassuring, seaside towns and coastlines that look welcoming and unspoilt.

There's a seascape from Signac too, one of a series in which he painted the fishing fleet off Concarneau in Brittany, the boats, as Fénéon described them, forming "an Egyptian-style procession, with a proliferation of parallel angles of bare masts and oars."

This is a show of words as well as pictures, including the story of Fénéon's acquittal on charges of involvement in an anarchist bombing plot, and the fun of his regular newspaper contributions, News in Three Lines. Sample:

"For the fifth time,
Cuvillier, a fishmonger in Marines,
has poisoned himself, and this time it's final."

There's a Signac painting here that might have provided material for News in Three Lines. It's A Sunday, and as the wife peers through the curtains at the outside world on a grey day, her husband stokes the fire.

Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard were also among the painters favoured by Fénéon, and Bonnard's advert for a brand of champagne drew this sparkling tribute from him: "A baroque swarm of bubbles foams inexhaustibly from the goblet held by a plump waitress with equally effervescent hair and twinkling screwed-up eyes."

Posters by artists like Bonnard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec on display across Paris, Fénéon wrote enthusiastically, were "like an open-air exhibition, all year round and along the full length of the road."

The closing section of this show takes in the first exhibition by the Italian Futurists in Paris in 1912, a show organised by Fénéon, again demonstrating how he was at the forefront of modern art. The Futurists, whose work incorporated elements of Neo-Impressionism and Cubism, celebrated movement, speed, machines, and in this stunning work by Giacomo Balla, the brilliance of electric light.

But the Futurists were a group that advocated revolution, and they weren't opposed to the use of violence to achieve change. They'd created outrage in Italy, and it's no surprise that the Paris show caused a scandal too, with a fight breaking out during the opening lecture.

There was, it seems, rarely a dull moment with Félix Fénéon, and there's never a dull moment in this show, one we almost didn't go along to see but which turned out to be one of the exhibitions we've most enjoyed this year.

Practicalities

Félix Fénéon runs until January 27 at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris. The museum is open from Wednesday to Monday from 0900 to 1800. Full-price tickets are a steal at just 9 euros. The Orangerie is in the Jardin des Tuileries, just off the Place de la Concorde, 10 to 15 minutes walk from the Louvre. The nearest Metro station is Concorde, on lines 1, 8 and 12.

Images

Paul Signac, Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890, 1891, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Georges Seurat, Model, Side View; Model, Front View; Model, Back View, 1887, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Unknown artist, Mask, Guoro, Ivory Coast, 19th/start of 20th century, Private collection and Unknown artist, Female statue, Baga, Guinea, 19th century, Collection of Dr Philippe-Guy E Woog
Georges Seurat, Port-en-Bessin, 1888, Minneapolis Institute of Art
Paul Signac, Setting Sun. Sardine Fishing. Adagio. Opus 221 from the series The Sea, The Boats, Concarneau, 1891, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Paul Signac, A Sunday, 1888-90, Private collection
Pierre Bonnard, France-Champagne, 1891, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
Giacomo Balla, Street Light, 1909, The Museum of Modern Art, New York