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Xavier Desparmet Fitz-Gerald (1861-1941) The Riverbank at Cormont, c. 1900's
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Details
Signed and dated ‘X. Desparmet Fitz-Gerald 190[.]’ (lower right, the last figure indistinct); inscribed ‘Cormont’ (lower left).
Sizes:
Frame: 70 × 84 cm | 27.6 × 33.1 in
Artwork: 48.5 × 65 cm | 19.1 × 25.6 in
A still stretch of water on a soft autumn morning: a rowing boat pulled up on the grass bank, a fisherman with his rod at the water’s edge, pollarded willows and a bare tree against a pale sky, and across the river a small town climbing its hill, red roofs and a church tower caught in the haze. The light is silvery, the handling fine and even, in the tradition of the late plein-air landscape of the Bordeaux school.
Xavier Desparmet Fitz-Gerald (1861–1941), a painter from the Gironde who worked in Bordeaux and Algeria, is better remembered today as the author of the first catalogue of Goya’s paintings, L’Œuvre peint de Goya (1928–1950), still cited in the Goya literature. His own paintings are quiet river views of the Garonne and its neighbours, of which this is a characteristic example, signed and dated at the beginning of the century and inscribed with the place.
Provenance
Acquired in France.
Private Collection, Spain.
Condition Report
Oil on canvas, unlined. A cross-shaped tear with associated paint loss in the sky, upper centre, about 8 cm across each way, unrestored and visible from the front; age craquelure across the sky; light surface dirt. Presented in a dark moulded frame with wear. Offered as a restoration project and priced accordingly. Please contact us to request a detailed Condition Report.
Shipping
Packed as size L (up to 100 × 80 cm) · 84 × 70 cm framed
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- Made-to-measure wooden crate (works over 20,000 €)
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Insurance is optional. It follows the final hammer price, so with insurance the total moves with the bidding. Indicative rates of our shipping partner MBE for packing and door-to-door transport; the final quote is confirmed after the sale. Import duties and taxes outside the EU are paid by the buyer.
We coordinate packing and shipping on your behalf, with insurance available if you’d like it — or you’re welcome to arrange your own. Please see our Shipping Information page for full details before completing your purchase.
Authenticity & Buyer Information
This lot is catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification. Provenance, dating and condition are described to the best of our knowledge; the sale is governed by our Conditions of Sale.
Buyers should review the catalogue carefully and raise any questions before bidding; additional information is not ordinarily provided after the auction.
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What it costs
Bidding on this site, the buyer’s premium is 25%, Spanish IVA included. There is no VAT on the hammer price and no card fee.
| Starting price | Low estimate | High estimate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hammer price | €200 | €300 | €500 |
| Buyer’s premium 25% (IVA included) | €50 | €75 | €125 |
| Total on auroraathena.com | €250 | €375 | €625 |
| Total through a bidding platform (30%) | €260 | €390 | €650 |
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%: the same hammer of €500 costs €650 there against €625 here. Shipping and insurance are quoted separately; the estimator below gives the figure for your country. Buyers outside the EU pay no Spanish tax on the lot; the destination’s import rules apply (United States: original paintings and drawings enter duty-free; United Kingdom: 5% import VAT on art). Card payments are accepted up to €10,000; larger amounts by bank transfer.
Questions about this lot
How does the estimate compare with the artist’s recent auction results?
The estimate of €300–€500 is our opinion of the range this work should reach; the starting price of €200 is the lowest bid we accept. We have not published comparable results for this lot; ask us before the sale and we will send the results we based the estimate on.
What will this lot cost in total?
Bidding on this site, the buyer’s premium is 25%, Spanish IVA included, and there is no VAT on the hammer price and no card fee: at the starting price of €200 the total is €250; at the low estimate of €300 the total is €375; at the high estimate of €500 the total is €625.
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%, so the same hammer of €500 costs €650 there. Shipping and insurance are quoted separately; the estimator on this page gives the figure for your country. Buyers outside the EU pay no Spanish tax on the lot; the destination’s import rules apply (United States: original paintings and drawings enter duty-free; United Kingdom: 5% import VAT on art). Card payments are accepted up to €10,000; larger amounts by bank transfer.
How is this lot catalogued?
Under the artist’s name without qualification. Provenance, dating, condition and value are described to the best of our knowledge; the sale is governed by the Conditions of Sale.
Can I see the condition report, more photographs or the work itself?
A condition report with ultraviolet photographs is prepared on request, normally within two working days; the condition summary on this page is examined in-house and is not a conservator’s report. Further photographs of any detail, the reverse or the frame are sent on request. The work can be examined in our Barcelona showroom by appointment before the sale, and you are welcome to send your own conservator or specialist.
How does bidding work, and can a maximum bid make me overpay?
You can leave a maximum bid before the sale (the sale is on Saturday, November 28th - 17:00 (CET)) or bid live in our online room. A maximum bid is executed by the auctioneer only as much as is needed to stay ahead of other bidders, in the sale’s increments, never above your maximum.
Where a reserve exists it never exceeds the low estimate; a lot without a reserve sells to the highest bid at or above the starting price of €200.
Is there a limit on how much I can bid?
Every account is approved for bidding as soon as the e-mail address is confirmed, with a limit of €5,000 per bid until the identity is verified. The limit applies everywhere: in the live room, on the lot page and to maximum bids. To bid without a limit, verify your identity in your account on this site: it takes about three minutes on a phone, is done once, and the limit is lifted automatically as soon as the check is complete. Please do it at least an hour before the sale.
Xavier Desparmet Fitz-Gerald
Xavier Desparmet Fitz-Gerald was born in 1861 at Béguey, near Cadillac in the Gironde, into a Bordeaux family of Irish descent. He trained as a painter and worked in Bordeaux, painting landscapes and genre scenes: the banks of the Garonne at Lormont and Bordeaux, quiet river views with boats and fishermen, and, during a stay in Algeria around 1895 to 1900, North African subjects. His paintings are held by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, and a bust of him was made by the sculptor Lucien Schnegg.
He painted in a fine, even, silvery manner that belongs to the late plein-air tradition of the south-west, closer to the Bordeaux school of the 1880s than to Impressionism.
Desparmet Fitz-Gerald’s lasting reputation rests on his scholarship. A passionate student of Spanish painting, he spent decades on Francisco Goya and published L’Œuvre peint de Goya in Paris between 1928 and 1950, the first attempt at a complete catalogue of Goya’s paintings, with hundreds of plates; it remains a reference in the Goya literature and is cited by museums and auction houses to this day. He also wrote as an art critic and owned Spanish pictures himself.
He spent his last years in the Basque Country and died at Hendaye in 1941.
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