Tribute to Pablo Casals - Pierre Ambrogiani (1907-1985)

Pierre AMBROGIANI
Important canvas - 197 x 295 cm
Tribute to Pablo CASALS - 1955
Exhibitions : - Peintres témoins de leur temps 1956 - Rehabilitation of the Portrait
- Exp. Musée de Toulon 1958 rep. cat. n° 2
- Exp. V. Charité rep. cat. n° 32
Bibliog. P. Ambrogiani by A. Alanzen, ed. Tacussel


Pierre AMBROGIANI 1907- 1985

One of the great Provençal masters of the modern period. A native of Ajaccio, he is associated with the Expressionist movement.

Born into a modest family, he moved to Marseille in 1908. His taste for drawing and modeling was apparent from an early age. As a child, he would make small figurines such as santons and others. At the age of 12, he became a "little telegrapher". He then exhibited his santons at one of the Marseilles post office crib exhibitions. In 1923, at the age of 16, the painter Auzias, seduced by his colorful figurines, offered him a place on the sidelines of his exhibition at the Langlois goldsmith's shop.

While working as a letter carrier, Ambrogiani continued to exhibit his work. He was noticed by André Malraux and Louis Aragon, with whom he became friends and who supported his artistic career. In 1936, Ambrogiani created the first Maison de la Culture in the French provinces, where he exhibited his work with fellow Marseilles painters Antoine Serra, Louis Toncini and François Diana.
In Marseille, Ambrogiani also rubbed shoulders with Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono.

He devoted himself entirely to his career as an artist in 1937, participating in the Salon d'Automne and becoming a member.
He took part in numerous group exhibitions of contemporary French art in France and abroad, including Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, New York, London and Turin.

A plein-air painter, his genius is distinguished by his fiery, tawny-colored canvases. He loved to paint landscapes of the south of France, which he treated with thick, oily matter. Ambrogiani reveals a modern Provence, where forms dissolve in color. Moving more and more towards the stripping away of structure and drawing, the artist approached a deliberately figurative abstraction. Our work is representative of this period.

Pablo Casals

With the lyricism of a fiery colorist, he translates all that is illuminated by the sun of Provence, which found in him its popular master. Marcel Pagnol said of him: "..., it is not ridiculous to pronounce the name of Cézanne".

Pablo Casals is one of the musicians of the 20th century who has most inspired artists. Jan Toorop, Raoul Dufy, Oskar Kokoschka....were all fascinated by the cellist's aura.
From an early age, he played a variety of instruments, but it wasn't until he entered the Barcelona Conservatory in 1888 that he fell under the spell of the cello. His talent began to be recognized as early as 1899, leading to performances for Queen Victoria, and later for Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and the Kennedy family...
He then took a stand in favor of the republic and freedom, and against dictatorships, particularly Franco's in Spain, for whom he refused to play. He was the first to take a stand and use his talent to defend freedom of expression.

Meeting and work

In 1955, Ambrogiani met Casals at the home of their mutual friend, the engraver Louis Jou.
The cellist played Bach while Jou chiselled. While they took a break and chatted, Ambrogiani sketched Casals on the spot.... This is how our painting was born.

On the finished canvas, Pablo Casals, seated and smoking his pipe, pauses meditatively between the two instruments.
Behind him, the church of Les Baux de Provence (the painter's sacred region) appears in a rocky landscape. The table is set with jug, gargoyle and fruit.

It's probably with this tribute to Casals in mind that Ambrogiani says: "I've done sonorous portraits, with very strong tones. I quickly lose the drawing because I overflow. I don't stop the line. I try to paint not the outline, but what's under the skin, the bone of the character".

A year later, at the Salon "Peintres Témoins de leur Temps" at the Musée Galliera, our work entitled "Hommage a Pablo Casals" was unanimously acclaimed by international critics... the presence of the model added to the painting's prestige.

For his friend Jean Giono, he succeeded in painting "the portrait of a character by portraying a landscape". Indeed, Pablo Casals is at one with his subject matter, an arrangement of broad, vivid flat tints. His palette of blue, lilac, sulfur, green and orange echoes the colors cited in 1888 by Vincent Van Gogh, of whom he was a great admirer.