This 1939 masterpiece Hunting Dogs in an Interior (Chiens de chasse dans un intérieur) belongs to Macario Vitalis' first artistic period, the \"Montmartre – Puteaux Period\" (1925 to 1944), in which his earliest works are to be found. In the catalog for Vitalis' 1986 retrospective at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the renowned art critic Alice Guillermo writes that works belonging to this formative phase in the artist's burgeoning painting career \"capture the atmosphere of France antebellum (aka pre-World War II) in its people and townscapes.\"
\nLes Amis de Macario Vitalis (The Friends of Vitalis), the association that aims to preserve the legacy of the artist, says that this early period when Vitalis settled in Paris was dominated by financially difficult years. During this time, Vitalis hoped to make it big in the highly competitive arena of the global art capital.
\nBut even before his Parisian period, Vitalis had already made it known to himself that his passion for art would serve a dual purpose: a source of living and a wellspring of breathing amid a constantly and persistently troubled life. Born to a middleclass family in Lapog (now San Juan), Ilocos Sur, at the twilight of Spanish colonization in 1898, Vitalis left the country for San Francisco, California with his brother Estel in 1917.
\nGuillermo writes in the catalog of the Vitalis retrospectives: \"When he left the country for America…at a time when Filipinos sought adventure and opportunity abroad as migrant workers in the pineapple plantations of California and the canneries of Alaska, the first thing Vitalis did…was to enlist for art school….\"
\nVitalis first enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts, eventually transferring to the University of San Francisco (Berkeley), all the while working as an elevator boy and \"saving for art materials by a diet of ice cream,\" as Guillermo puts it.
\nIn 1924, Vitalis enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and, after two years, would sojourn to London before finally settling in Paris on August 5, 1926. That same year, Vitalis would study at the Académie de Beaux-Arts de Montmartre. He settled in Montmartre, considered the artistic heart of Paris, the global art capital. Montmartre was also where eminent artists, such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Modigliani, and Valadon, once set up their studios.
\nIn Montmartre, Vitalis encountered financial difficulties, as with the many bohemian artists living in the district at the time. He shared an atelier with two other artists at 66 Rue Lepic, a few blocks away from where Van Gogh had once lived. Despite his financial constraints, Vitalis found the pleasant atmosphere of Montmartre suitable for his artistic pursuits. The 1965 song 'La Bohème' by the French-Armenian musician Charles Aznavour perfectly describes the lifestyle of artists in Montmartre: \"Often I would, in front of my easel, spend sleepless nights altering the drawing of the line of a breast, of the curve of a hip, and only in the morning, we would finally sit, in front of a coffee with milk, exhausted but delighted. We must have loved each other and loved life.\"
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As an artistic hubbub, Paris gave rise to the École de Paris, encapsulating its significance as the heart and soul of Western art in the first half of the 20th century. The city became a melting pot of avant-garde styles, including Fauvism, Cubism, Orphism, Surrealism, and Dadaism. During these early years, Vitalis gravitated towards the figurative. Not only was this a result of his academic training during his \"American years,\" but also because excellent draftsmanship was highly valued by the artists affiliated with the School of Paris. Vitalis had many things to prove then; he had just jumpstarted his artistic career, hoping to break through in the dynamic art capital and make a name and living for himself through his passion for art.
Hunting Dogs in an Interior captures Vitalis' penchant for depicting the atmosphere and milieu of pre-World War II Parisian life in his early career. Eleven hunting dogs of the breed Hungarian Vizsla are shown seated—with one sniffing the ground—inside a lavish room with interiors of the Art Deco style, which was ubiquitous in Paris until the beginning of World War II in 1939. The emphasis on a brown palette, a characteristic of academic painting, endows the scene with a palpable sense of realism and a highly enigmatic atmosphere. Vitalis' color scheme and sensibilities of form are highly influenced by Paul Cezanne, one of his foremost luminaries whose still lifes Vitalis greatly admired.
\nBy the time of the creation of this work, Vitalis had already met Camille Renault around 1935-36. Renault was a noted art collector, patron, and owner of 'Big Boy,' a theater-restaurant at 60 Avenue de la République in Puteaux. From 1925 until 1967, the place was a common ground for artists and the Le Tout-Paris, the city's affluent elite who frequented trendy spots. In 1937, Renault offered Vitalis a maid's room above Big Boy, where Vitalis set up his studio and stayed for nearly 20 years. He also exhibited at the restaurant, thanks to Renault. In exchange, Vitalis did the restaurant's set designs, decorated the theater during shows, and often assisted in the kitchen. Vitalis and Renault would form a lifelong friendship, treating each other as family, with the former even joining the latter's family excursions.
\nIt would also be at Big Boy where, in 1940, Vitalis would meet and befriend Jacques Villon, aka Gaston Duchamp, the elder brother of Marcel Duchamp. Villon was a noted member of the Groupe de Puteaux (Section d'Or), who, along with his brother Marcel, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Fernand Leger, and Jean Metzinger, among others, pioneered Orphism. This Cubist-influenced style emphasized vivid, prismatic colors and was a progenitor to pure, non-objective painting. Vitalis would turn to Orphism after the war.
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