1848 -1913 · Social naturalism, Montmartre and parade of the humble

Street children, homeless people, street vendors and acrobats give Fernand Pelez a monumental, attentive social realism without easy spectacle.

Fernand Pelez was born in Paris in 1848 into a family of artists of Spanish origin. Trained at the School of Fine Arts then at the Académie Julian, he began with history painting, ancient and religious subjects expected at the Salon. Anatomy, large format and narrative composition gave him a solid academic technique. Around 1880, Pelez radically changed the subject. Installed at the foot of Montmartre, he looked at the poor figures of modern Paris: homeless children, small trades, flower sellers, beggars, exhausted dancers, clowns and acrobats. This conversion to naturalism does not mean the abandonment of monumentality. On the contrary, he uses formats and gravity of history painting to make visible those that society keeps on its margins. Grimaces and misery - Les Saltimbanques, presented at the Salon of 1888, deploys a long frieze of musicians, acrobats and children in front of the worn canvas of a barracks. The parade promised as entertainment becomes a study of fatigue, hunger and dignity. Without asylum and A martyr, the violet merchant brings the gaze even closer to the exhausted body without transforming poverty into a picturesque anecdote. Pelez observes costumes, accessories and attitudes with precision, but often reserves sober funds which prevent escape to the scene. Remained behind social networks, he died in Paris in 1913. His work places the humble at the center of the large painting and constitutes a major testimony to the inequalities of the Belle Époque. The "Fernand Pelez" selection notably compares Grimaces and Misery - Les Saltimbanques and Sans asylum. His reading favors color.

Pelez retains the breadth of history painting but changes the heroes: the child, the homeless and the acrobat now occupy the entire stage.