The painting entitled "Combat de nègres,during the night" is the work of Paul Bilhaud (1854-1933), a writer who explored all genres but was especially successful in the theater of the boulevard, and who briefly tried his hand at painting.
Revealed on October 1, 1882 during an "Exposition des arts incohérents", the current to which Bilhaud is attached, this painting then disappeared for 138 years.
This 49 cm by 43.5 cm oil on canvas was rediscovered with 18 other works by a self-taught gallery owner, 19th century specialist, Johann Naldi, who showed it to the press in early 2021. They were sheltered in a trunk from individuals in the Paris region.
The monochrome "has been in this family for fifty years. How did it end up there? The grandfather was a collector, but we don't know how he bought this work. The history of this painting will be impossible to trace" , he said, interviewed by AFP on Thursday.
On Friday, Liberation published a long investigation questioning the authenticity of the monochrome.
"Over the months, doubt has set in among the experts, troubled by the overly beautiful story and the opacity that surrounds this find," said the daily.
He cites several who raise the possibility of a forgery, without a definitive conclusion: a historian and a writer specializing in this artistic movement, Corinne Taunay and Frédéric Roux, and art historians, Denys Riout, Didier Semin, Jean -Hubert Martin.
Looted by the Vanguard
Johann Naldi, for his part, published Thursday at Liénart editions "Incoherent arts: discoveries and new perspectives".
He details the "technical aspects and scientific analyzes" which show that the painting is indeed from the period in which it is supposed to have been painted.
He enlisted, after having approached him in the street because he knew he was an amateur of the Incohérents, the philosopher Michel Onfray.
A label "Incoherent Arts" visible on the back of the painting "Combat de nègres, pendant la nuit" by Paul Bilhaud, from 1882, the first monochrome ever painted, exhibited in a gallery in Paris, February 5, 2021 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP / Archives
The latter published, also Thursday, an essay, "Les Anartistes" (Albin Michel editions), where he vigorously defends the importance of these troublemakers, forgotten precursors of the Dadaists, the surrealists and Marcel Duchamp, among others.
"The false avant-garde of the 20th century plunders the Incohérents without ever citing them, of course! Duchamp, Satie, Tzara, Malevitch, Klein, Breton, Cage, and all their followers", writes Michel Onfray, convinced of the anteriority of Bilhaud on all these artists.
Johann Naldi does not hide his objective: to have the State purchase the 19 works of the Incoherents that he has discovered.
They could then end up in the Musée d'Orsay, the pantheon of French art in the 19th century.
According to information from Liberation, he is aiming for a price of 10 million euros, which Orsay finds twice too high.
"Confusing"
Giving a market value to the monochrome is, according to the expert, "impossible. With the usual criteria of estimation, it is an inestimable object".
The Ministry of Culture, in May 2021, classified all these works as "national treasure".
This guarantees that they will stay in France, and paves the way for corporate sponsorship with tax reduction.
The painting will be visible on Tuesday during an ephemeral exhibition of four hours by invitation, as in 1882, at the Olympia in Paris.
The painting "Combat de nègres,during the night" by Paul Bilhaud, from 1882, the first monochrome ever painted, exhibited in a gallery in Paris, February 5, 2021 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP / Archives
This will give an idea of its appeal to a connoisseur audience.
The organizers invited 2,000 people during the day, without asking them to confirm their presence.
The solid black paint, the frame and stretcher, the title, the solemnity of the exhibition at the time: everything contributes to making it a very serious work, long before Kasimir Malevich's "White Square on a White Background" in 1918.
According to Johann Naldi, "it's confusing for art historians who imagined a black paper pinned to the wall, torn off", after reading very vague descriptions of this painting that no one had seen.
© 2022 AFP