Ottmann – Ball on 14 July 1919. Armistice

Henry Ottman
(Ancenis 1877 – Vernon 1927)

BALL OF 14 JULY 1919, ARMISTICE

Painted in 1919
Oil and pencil on cardboard, 38 x 46 cm
Signed lower right: Henry Ottmann

Provenance:
Auction, Chevau-Légers, Versailles, 25 June 1971 and Me Martin, Versailles, 25 June 1974;
Bernard Toublanc-Michel Collection

Literature:
Bernard Toublanc-Michel, Henry Ottmann, catalogue raisonné, p. 130, no. 289

Henry Ottmann worked as a painter and graphic artist, first in Brussels, then mainly in Paris, where he exhibited with leading gallery owners Paul Durand-Ruel, Eugène Druet and Marcel Bernheim and, after his debut at the Salon La Libre Esthétique in Brussels, from 1904 onwards at the Salon des Indépendants, Salon d’Automne, Salon Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and Salon des Tuileries.

In 1896, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but had to interrupt his studies the following year to do his military service in his hometown in the 64th Infantry Regiment. Independent and freedom-loving as he was, he could not stand the drill for long – he wanted to be out in nature and paint – so in 1898 he faked his own drowning and fled via Brittany to Belgium. In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to his hometown of Ancenis, where he rejoined the French army as a medic. His mother and influential female clients insisted that he remain on site and have free time to paint.

He painted ‘Ball of 14 July 1919’ on the occasion of the armistice. The First World War, which was even more costly for the French and Belgians than the Second, was over. The survivors could cautiously try to live again, and the colours of the dancing couples are correspondingly subdued. But lights are already twinkling above them, and the sea of tricolour flags adds colour. The picturesque nature of the flags on the national holiday had already inspired Impressionists such as Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Fauvists such as Camoin, Manguin, Marquet, etc. before Ottmann.