Théo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926), Champ de course à Boulogne-sur-Mer

Théo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926)
Champ de course à Boulogne-sur-Mer
signed with the monogram and dated ‘1900’ (lower left)
oil on canvas
23 x 30 1/4 in. (58.5 x 76.8 cm.)
Painted in 1900

Provenance
Eugène Descaves, Paris; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 28 March 1919, lot 72.
Anonymous sale, Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, 9 November 1933, lot 200.
Anonymous sale, Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, 14 March 1936, lot 309.
G. Vanderhaeghen, Ghent, by 1962.
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 27 June 1988, lot 15.
Private collection, United States, by whom acquired at the above sale.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 8 November 1994, lot 9.
Private collection, United States, by whom acquired at the above sale.
Galerie De Jonckheere, Brussels.
Maurice Keitelman, Brussels.
Waring Hopkins, Paris.
Triton Collection Foundation, The Netherlands, by whom acquired from the above in 2000.

Pre-Lot Text
EXCEPTIONAL WORKS FROM THE TRITON COLLECTION FOUNDATION
Christie’s is honoured to be offering for sale a significant group of works from the Triton Collection Foundation, which continues to evolve and grow in new areas. The collection spans a range of artistic movements from early Impressionism through to Post-War art, establishing the Foundation as a leading institution to carry out its many philanthropic aims.
Over many years the Foundation has considered public access to its works as a fundamental pillar of its collecting ethos. A continuous dialogue with curators around the world and an extensive loan programme to over seventy museums globally has made this dream a reality and benefited exhibitions at the likes of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, the Seoul Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. These collaborations have ensured that an international audience has consistently had the opportunity to appreciate the quality and breadth of the collection, which stretches from classic Impressionism through to Surrealism and beyond to Post-War work by the major American artists. The sales of the major works in this season’s auctions will give the opportunity to the Foundation to continue its excellent, philanthropic work.
The last major de-acquisition from the collection took place in our salerooms in Paris in March 2015 when the Exceptional Works on Paper from the Triton Collection Foundation sale elicited huge interest from collectors and public institutions around the globe: Those works, which had been collected by its founders over many years, saw spectacular prices for top quality pieces by artists such as Camille Pissarro and Fernand Léger, further to the numerous world record prices achieved for works on paper by Claude-Emile Schuffenecker, Paul-Elie Ranson and Frédéric Bazille. This strong market reaction is in recognition of the eye with which they had originally been selected.
The group of works being sold across our Impressionist sales here in London includes seminal examples of French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the European avant-garde, from Claude Monet’s luminous Vétheuil of 1879 to Jan Toorop’s resonating symbolist 1902 composition, Faith and Reward. Each of these works has been bought with a very discerning eye, and often the provenances of the pieces are as noble as the works themselves. We wish the Foundation great success with these sales as well as their future projects and continuous development of the Triton Collection Foundation.
Jussi Pylkkänen
Global President, Christie’s

Literature
T. van Rysselberghe, Letter to François Viélé-Griffin, 11 August 1899, as 'champ de courses'.
G. van Zype, 'Notice sur Théo van Rysselberghe', in Annuaire de l'Académie royale de Belgique, Brussels, 1932, p. 35 (dated '1899').
G. Pogu, Théo van Rysselberghe. Sa vie. Premiers éléments, 1963, p. 22.
D. E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions, 1900-1916, Munich, 1974, p. 26.
S. Goyens de Heusch, Het impressionnisme en het fauvisme in België, Antwerp, 1988, p. 204 (illustrated).
R. Feltkamp, Théo Van Rysselberghe, 1862-1926, Catalogue raisonné, Brussels, 2003, no. 1900-009, pp. 326 & 494 (illustrated pp. 83 & 326).
S. van Heugten, Avant-gardes, 1870 to the present: The Collection of the Triton Foundation, Brussels, 2012, p. 562 (illustrated pp. 86-87).

Exhibited
Brussels, La Libre Esthétique, Huitième Exposition, March 1901, no. 468, p. 41.
Bilbao, Sociedad El Sitio, 1901.
Vienna, Secession Building, Entwicklung des Impressionismus in Malerei und Plastik, XVI, January - February 1903, no. 122, p. 32 (titled ‘Pferderennen’).
Ghent, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rétrospective Théo van Rysselberghe, July - September 1962, no. 76, p. 42.
Deurle, Stichting Léon de Smet, Peintres Flamandes XIX-XX siècle, May - June 1981, no. 49.
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Théo van Rysselberghe, February - May 2006, pp. 65-66 & 258 (illustrated p. 65); this exhibition later travelled to The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, June - September 2006.
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Meer dan kleur. Fauvisme en expressionisme uit de collectie van de Triton Foundation, April - September 2009, pp. 10- 11 (illustrated p. 10).
Rotterdam, Kunsthal, Avant-gardes: De collectie van de Triton Foundation, October 2012 - January 2013.