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La raie cendrée

Painting

Author

By (artist) Aloys Zötl

Description

When the second sale of the watercolours of Aloys Zötl took place, André Breton linked the name of the Austrian artist with Douanier Rousseau in the following manner:
"The atmosphere at the recent dispersal, in a public sale, of the first half of the works from the studio of Aloys Zötl-an artist unknown up to now-gave an accurate measure of their charm, expressed in the liveliest competition imaginable between collectors from the very start of bidding. This second and last sale, proposing one hundred and seventy works of no lesser quality, should find only increased favor." André Breton (Le surréalisme et la peinture, Nouvelle édition revue et corrigée, 1928-1965, Paris, Gallimard, 1965, p. 354-355).

Aloys Zötl
"Here I am proposing my own personal choice, which-far from any desire to be authoritarian and definitive-is, on the contrary, an invitation to each individual to make his own choice. First because beauty is a personal affair [...] and then because the affinities that we may feel in regard to this or that animal space proceeds from reasons which often are not ruled by our consciousness.
I like [...] Le Semnopithèque from 1839 [...], La Loutre and Rana varia (one of the most beautiful Max Ernst's I know) from 1863, [...] Le Rhinocéros from 1872 (Oh, powerful marvel of ponderousness and grace) [...]" José Pierre (Julio Cortazar (texte de), Giovanni Mariotti (introduction de), José Pierre (postface de), Aloys Zötl (1803-1887), Milan, Franco Maria Ricci, 1976, p. 140-144).

Bibliography

- Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Me Rheims, L'atelier Aloys Zötl, deuxième et dernière vente, 3 mai 1956, n° 67
- Julio Cortazar (texte de), Giovanni Mariotti (introduction de), José Pierre (postface de), Aloys Zötl (1803-1887), Milan, Franco Maria Ricci, 1976, rep.p. 131, p. 153

Le Bestiaire de Zötl

Exhibition place