IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART

Transcription

1 IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART Tuesday 8 December - Espace Tajan TAJAN is proud to announce the next Prestige Sale of modern and impressionist paintings and sculptures, to be held at l Espace Tajan on Tuesday 8 December at 7pm. Exceptional works will represent several artistic schools and trends including Surrealism, l École de Paris, as well as German Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) including a museum quality piece by Max Beckmann. The following is a selection of important works : Max Beckmann ( ) Perseus' (Herkules') letzte Aufgabe, 1949 Perseus (Hercules ) Last Duty, 1949 Oil on canvas. Signed and dated at bottom. 89,4 x 142,2 cm Estimate : /

2 In his 1949 painting, Max Beckmann mixes reality and allegory in what can be described as a macabre visual puzzle. Perseus is depicted on the left as he prepares to behead the Gorgon Medusa. Seen from the back in the darkest part of the painting, Perseus bears his sword, magical pouch, and the helmet given to him by Hermes. The Medusa s decapitated corpse stands in a pool of blood at the center of the painting. Contrary to the grotesque mythology of the monster, the Gorgon is depicted as a martyr. The horrified faces of her two sisters focus the attention on the gruesome scene while Athena s shield reflects the execution from the right of the painting. The fascination with mythology expressed in this painting gives it an important place in Beckmann s body of work. Perseus' (Herkules') letzte Aufgabe, 1949, does not give way to a specific interpretation. The richness of the scene combines with a synthesis of pessimistic visions of man in the wake of two global conflicts. Victor BRAUNER ( ) Etre rétracté en chien, 1950 Oil on canvas, signed and dated XII at bottom left 65 x 54 cm Estimate : / Être rétracté en chien is a pivotal work for Victor Brauner in He retains the primitivist style and the decorative borders of his earlier period from 1948 to 1949 (the Onomatomanies of the Musée de l Abbaye Sainte-Croix des Sables d Olonne, Rencontre avec moi-même aux 2

3 quatre chats du monde of the Musée d Art Moderne de Strasbourg) as well as the nearsymmetry borrowed from the paintings of Fleury-Joseph Crépin, whom Brauner and many other surrealists admired. Être rétracté en chien foreshadows Brauner s darker period, known as la période des rétractés, full of melancholy, claustrophobic and disturbing themes. The Musée de Saint-Étienne holds the masterpiece of the rétractés, a 1952 painting entitled Coexistence, which revisits the same image as Être rétracté en chien : a peaceful dream (the tranquility of the womb) changing to a terrible vision (Jonas in the belly of the whale). Whereas in Coexistence we face abject terror, Être rétracté en chien still offers the almost amusing image of a concern dominated and articulated through humor. Henri Matisse Femme Assise Ink on paper 42 x 32,5 cm Signed «HM» at bottom left Estimate : /

4 Rembrandt Bugatti ( ) Seated Leopard Bronze with black patina Numbered and Stamped A.A.Hebrard, Height: 22 cm Estimate : / Pierre-Auguste Renoir ( ) Jeune fille en rose, 1900 Oil on canvas Signed at bottom left 30,5 x 15 cm Estimate : /

5 Bernard Buffet ( ) Le Moulin de la Galette, 1965 Watercolor, ink and pencil on paper Signed and dated 65 at top left 65 x 49,7 cm Estimate : / Amedeo Modigliani ( ) Portrait de Michel Kikoine, 1917 Pencil on paper backed with card Signed and dated at bottom right 38,5 x 25,5 cm Estimation : /

6 Fernand Léger ( ) La roue dans le paysage ou Paysage américain, 1945 Watercolor and pencil on paper Initialed and dated 45 at bottom right dedication on reverse "à ma très chère petite Colette avec mes plus sincères voeux de grand bonheur, Nadia Léger, 21/III/1959" 29 x 38 cm Estimate : / Pierre-Auguste Renoir ( ) Deux femmes Chalk on paper (backed with board) Signed and initialed at bottom 31 x 48 cm Estimate : /

7 Serge Charchoune ( ) Nature morte puriste à la pipe, vers Huile sur toile Signée du monogramme en russe en bas à gauche et français en bas à droite 49,5 x 65 cm Estimation : /