1929
See also : USA USA II US painting < 1940 Holland Spain II Picasso 1907-31 Lempicka Sanyu Sanyu < 1950 Groups
masterpiece
1929 La Trahison des Images by Magritte
Los Angeles County Museum
From 1926 Magritte observes that an image of an object remains an image and is not the object. He begins to confront the drawing of his pipe with the word 'pipe' or with an abstraction. In 1929 La trahison des images is an artistic manifesto of a sublime simplicity, in just six words: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."
In the same period Miro also was appreciating that the new poetic dimension of modern art was a personal work that could not be attached to a movement and even less to a political affiliation.
In the same period Miro also was appreciating that the new poetic dimension of modern art was a personal work that could not be attached to a movement and even less to a political affiliation.
1929 Confrontation with the Modern Life
2018 SOLD for $ 92M including premium
Very francophile after a stay in Paris, Edward Hopper observes on his return to New York the differences in the art of living between the two continents. Everything is changing very quickly in the United States in the 1920s around a new organization of work that better incorporates women, respects their individuality better and gives them some freedom.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1929 Constructing the Balance
2015 SOLD for $ 50.6M including premium
On a small canvas, Piet Mondrian looks for the absolute balance by drawing strictly horizontal and vertical lines which are interrupted or not when meeting. They form squares or rectangles of which some of them may seem dominant. Basically formed of non-colors, these subspaces lose their respective imbalances when some are filled with pure colors.
In 1929, the artist manages to simplify this structure to the extreme without however reaching the ultimate outcome of the squares by Malevich. Only one vertical and one horizontal lines go from edge to edge, dividing the canvas into four nearly equal areas. The broken lines complement a square over the bottom right with divided stripes on their edges.
On May 14 in New York, Christie's sells a Composition No. III with red, blue, yellow and black, 50 x 50 cm, lot 6C estimated $ 15M, which is a prototype and perhaps the most outstanding painting using this new geometry. The deep red on the top left distracts the attention away from the non-colored central square. The other two colors along with the black and a non-color fill the narrow stripes on the bottom right of the figure.
Mondrian is happy. He presents this painting to Michel Seuphor, who is one of the first critics to actively support this new conception of abstract art, and reuses this effective geometry with other color schemes.
Painted in 1930 on a canvas of same size, Composition No. II with blue and yellow was sold for £ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on February 4, 2014.
In 1929, the artist manages to simplify this structure to the extreme without however reaching the ultimate outcome of the squares by Malevich. Only one vertical and one horizontal lines go from edge to edge, dividing the canvas into four nearly equal areas. The broken lines complement a square over the bottom right with divided stripes on their edges.
On May 14 in New York, Christie's sells a Composition No. III with red, blue, yellow and black, 50 x 50 cm, lot 6C estimated $ 15M, which is a prototype and perhaps the most outstanding painting using this new geometry. The deep red on the top left distracts the attention away from the non-colored central square. The other two colors along with the black and a non-color fill the narrow stripes on the bottom right of the figure.
Mondrian is happy. He presents this painting to Michel Seuphor, who is one of the first critics to actively support this new conception of abstract art, and reuses this effective geometry with other color schemes.
Painted in 1930 on a canvas of same size, Composition No. II with blue and yellow was sold for £ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on February 4, 2014.
A #newworldrecord set for #PietMondrian @ChristiesInc as 'Composition III' sells for $50,565,000 pic.twitter.com/G3PTht6pTl
— Art Observed (@ArtObserved) May 14, 2015
1929 SANYU
1
Femme Nue sur un Tapis
2023 SOLD for HK$ 187M by Christie's
Born in a family of wealthy silk industrialists, Sanyu (Chang Yu) had early skills for black ink and calligraphy. From 1923 he lives mainly in Montmartre and Montparnasse. Passionate about the Parisian life and its cabarets, he discovers with delight at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière that young women exhibit their nudity for artists and students.
He realizes countless drawings combining the effectiveness of the line of traditional Chinese style with this sensual theme taboo at that time in his country. Possibly influenced by Modigliani's nudes, Sanyu fully materializes the idea of the dominance of a sharp minimalist undulating line which accentuates the erotic invitation.
Beyond his very good understanding of both Asian and Western arts, his approach is highly original : the emotion can come from the balance between the surfaces delimited by the lines. Figurative details, proportions and perspectives are subsidiary. Cézanne was right : art cannot copy nature.
Before 1929 the practice by Sanyu of the oil on canvas had been very limited. Femme nue sur un tapis, 81 x 130 cm, is an early example, illustrated in a Shanghai magazine in February 1929 and two months later in a German magazine beside a reclining female nude on a bed by Suzanne Valadon. It was lauded at that time as a Western subject in Oriental tones.
The black haired woman is reclining on her belly on a white carpet posed on a bright red floor. The view of the face is limited to one wide opened eye. In this arguably experimental work, the clumsy shape is made with no effort to display the natural proportions of a female body but the contours are underlined by a regular shadow in a reference to antique Chinese paintings. The model has the bobbed hairstyle of the artists' muse Kiki de Montparnasse. The carpet is illustrated with animal figures in motion to be read as homophonic Chinese puns.
This painting had Roché as its first owner but possibly predates Sanyu's first encounter in 1929 with his sponsor. It was sold for HK $ 187M from a lower estimate of HK $ 100M by Christie's on November 28, 2023, lot 11.
He realizes countless drawings combining the effectiveness of the line of traditional Chinese style with this sensual theme taboo at that time in his country. Possibly influenced by Modigliani's nudes, Sanyu fully materializes the idea of the dominance of a sharp minimalist undulating line which accentuates the erotic invitation.
Beyond his very good understanding of both Asian and Western arts, his approach is highly original : the emotion can come from the balance between the surfaces delimited by the lines. Figurative details, proportions and perspectives are subsidiary. Cézanne was right : art cannot copy nature.
Before 1929 the practice by Sanyu of the oil on canvas had been very limited. Femme nue sur un tapis, 81 x 130 cm, is an early example, illustrated in a Shanghai magazine in February 1929 and two months later in a German magazine beside a reclining female nude on a bed by Suzanne Valadon. It was lauded at that time as a Western subject in Oriental tones.
The black haired woman is reclining on her belly on a white carpet posed on a bright red floor. The view of the face is limited to one wide opened eye. In this arguably experimental work, the clumsy shape is made with no effort to display the natural proportions of a female body but the contours are underlined by a regular shadow in a reference to antique Chinese paintings. The model has the bobbed hairstyle of the artists' muse Kiki de Montparnasse. The carpet is illustrated with animal figures in motion to be read as homophonic Chinese puns.
This painting had Roché as its first owner but possibly predates Sanyu's first encounter in 1929 with his sponsor. It was sold for HK $ 187M from a lower estimate of HK $ 100M by Christie's on November 28, 2023, lot 11.
2
The White Pitchers of Sanyu
2015 SOLD for HK$ 59M including premium
Life is not always easy for a young Chinese artist in exile in Paris. For Sanyu, the meeting with Henri-Pierre Roché in 1929 was providential although not enough to protect him from misery.
Encouraged by his new sponsor, Sanyu is experimenting the possibilities of artistic expression of the oil painting, which will open his eyes beyond his favorite theme of the drawings of women for fashion and in the nude.
Sanyu becomes a painter of flowers, but with a great originality in which some try to see the influence of Chinese art. The theme of his research is not only the flowers but especially the white pitcher in which they are arranged. This stylized vase disappearing before a white background or in total contrast to a black background opens a new artistic language based on the opposition of simple shapes.
The oil on canvas 73 x 50 cm for sale by Poly Auction in Hong Kong on October 5, lot 133, is dated from that first experimental year. It is highlighted in the press release announcing all the sessions of the auction.
This white pot is placed on a white surface in front of a black background. It contains some roses as flowers or buds, painted in pink. The stems and the skeletons leaves painted close to white add to the illusion that this work without perspective effect and without texture detail could almost be a radiograph.
The artist continues his creative exploration. An oil on canvas painted in 1930 in a similar size shows a colored vase but the vanishing contrasts affect the plant against its black background. This painting that had belonged to Roché was sold for € 4.1 million including premium by Aguttes on June 2, 2015.
In 1931, the white vase against a white background becomes almost invisible. It is still present but does not attract any more the attention of the viewer. The flower becomes logically the focus of the picture. A composition with two pink hydrangeas was sold by Aguttes in the same sale as above and at the same price.
Soon after, the quarrel between Sanyu and Roché marks the end of this first period of great creativity of the artist.
Encouraged by his new sponsor, Sanyu is experimenting the possibilities of artistic expression of the oil painting, which will open his eyes beyond his favorite theme of the drawings of women for fashion and in the nude.
Sanyu becomes a painter of flowers, but with a great originality in which some try to see the influence of Chinese art. The theme of his research is not only the flowers but especially the white pitcher in which they are arranged. This stylized vase disappearing before a white background or in total contrast to a black background opens a new artistic language based on the opposition of simple shapes.
The oil on canvas 73 x 50 cm for sale by Poly Auction in Hong Kong on October 5, lot 133, is dated from that first experimental year. It is highlighted in the press release announcing all the sessions of the auction.
This white pot is placed on a white surface in front of a black background. It contains some roses as flowers or buds, painted in pink. The stems and the skeletons leaves painted close to white add to the illusion that this work without perspective effect and without texture detail could almost be a radiograph.
The artist continues his creative exploration. An oil on canvas painted in 1930 in a similar size shows a colored vase but the vanishing contrasts affect the plant against its black background. This painting that had belonged to Roché was sold for € 4.1 million including premium by Aguttes on June 2, 2015.
In 1931, the white vase against a white background becomes almost invisible. It is still present but does not attract any more the attention of the viewer. The flower becomes logically the focus of the picture. A composition with two pink hydrangeas was sold by Aguttes in the same sale as above and at the same price.
Soon after, the quarrel between Sanyu and Roché marks the end of this first period of great creativity of the artist.
1929 La Fenêtre Ouverte by Picasso
2022 SOLD for £ 16.3M by Christie's
Aged 20 in 1929, Marie-Thérèse Walter is still a minor according to French law. Pablo Picasso manages major efforts for preserving his clandestine love from law pursuits and from the jealousy of his wife.
In his art, Picasso does not reveal the body and face of his muse. Mad in love, he cannot restraint to include playful symbols that definitely address Marie-Thérèse in his own mind while remaining hermetic to the viewers. He is close to the Surréalistes at that time.
In a much stylized and even childish drawing style, La Fenêtre ouverte features two beings. On the right side, the top of a lamp is the head in profile of a woman who has a sharp angled nose and mouth over the otherwise rounded lines of Marie-Thérèse's head. The base of the lamp is a five fingered hand clutching a beachball which reminds the 1928 and 1929 Dinard summertime of the lovers. Marie-Thérèse later said about that picture : "It's me alright".
On the left side, an E block letter is made of a pair of human bare feet linked by a single vertical leg while the middle bar is a phallic arrow pointing to the woman-lamp. E is the first letter of Eros, the beloved deity of the Dadaists.
Behind that weird couple, a window opens to the Eglise Sainte-Clotilde, identifiable by its two spires, in the vicinity of some secret love nest.
La Fenêtre ouverte, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm painted in November 1929, was sold for £ 16.3M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 108.
In his art, Picasso does not reveal the body and face of his muse. Mad in love, he cannot restraint to include playful symbols that definitely address Marie-Thérèse in his own mind while remaining hermetic to the viewers. He is close to the Surréalistes at that time.
In a much stylized and even childish drawing style, La Fenêtre ouverte features two beings. On the right side, the top of a lamp is the head in profile of a woman who has a sharp angled nose and mouth over the otherwise rounded lines of Marie-Thérèse's head. The base of the lamp is a five fingered hand clutching a beachball which reminds the 1928 and 1929 Dinard summertime of the lovers. Marie-Thérèse later said about that picture : "It's me alright".
On the left side, an E block letter is made of a pair of human bare feet linked by a single vertical leg while the middle bar is a phallic arrow pointing to the woman-lamp. E is the first letter of Eros, the beloved deity of the Dadaists.
Behind that weird couple, a window opens to the Eglise Sainte-Clotilde, identifiable by its two spires, in the vicinity of some secret love nest.
La Fenêtre ouverte, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm painted in November 1929, was sold for £ 16.3M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 108.
1929 The Two Husbands of Gala
2011 SOLD 13.5 M£ including premium
Young Surrealists were keen of their own life. These intellectuals seek their own mode of expression, become friends, often quarrel. The shadow of Freud's theories is hovering behind their research, proving that even their craziest sexual fantasies may be the subject of study, poetry and art.
In 1929, Luis Buñuel is the master of surrealist movies. "Un Chien Andalou" is on the theme of a dream made by one of his young countrymen with an especially exalted sensitivity, Salvador Dali.
Visiting Paris at this time, Dali was very proud to attract the attention of Eluard, one of the leaders of the surrealist poetry. On the same year, Eluard and his wife will be hosted by Dali in Cadaques, a journey that will be of great importance in the history of art.
Dali makes the surrealist portrait of Eluard. This handsome young man of 34 is seen in bust, flying over a barren landscape that is already Dalinian. He is flanked and surrounded by symbols, including a small sleepy head which personifies the dream of the artist. One can spend much time looking for the real meaning of the lion head, the hollow mask, the crushed insects and the woman's hands. Dali delights in a hermetism no one else could decipher.
The portrait of Eluard by Dali, an oil on board 35 x 25 cm, is estimated £ 3.5 million, for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 10. It is illustrated in a post shared by Bloomberg.
Dali went on long walks with Helena, the wife of Eluard who gave her the muse name Gala. The artist senses that he is meeting the woman he had dreamed. Dali and Gala will live together for ever.
POST SALE COMMENT
Surrealism is in the spotlight this year in the London auctions. The portrait of Eluard is both a work dating from the spirited youth of Dali and a masterpiece combining the myths and symbols of the Dalinian universe. Despite its small size, it got an amazing result: £ 13.5 million including premium.
In 1929, Luis Buñuel is the master of surrealist movies. "Un Chien Andalou" is on the theme of a dream made by one of his young countrymen with an especially exalted sensitivity, Salvador Dali.
Visiting Paris at this time, Dali was very proud to attract the attention of Eluard, one of the leaders of the surrealist poetry. On the same year, Eluard and his wife will be hosted by Dali in Cadaques, a journey that will be of great importance in the history of art.
Dali makes the surrealist portrait of Eluard. This handsome young man of 34 is seen in bust, flying over a barren landscape that is already Dalinian. He is flanked and surrounded by symbols, including a small sleepy head which personifies the dream of the artist. One can spend much time looking for the real meaning of the lion head, the hollow mask, the crushed insects and the woman's hands. Dali delights in a hermetism no one else could decipher.
The portrait of Eluard by Dali, an oil on board 35 x 25 cm, is estimated £ 3.5 million, for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 10. It is illustrated in a post shared by Bloomberg.
Dali went on long walks with Helena, the wife of Eluard who gave her the muse name Gala. The artist senses that he is meeting the woman he had dreamed. Dali and Gala will live together for ever.
POST SALE COMMENT
Surrealism is in the spotlight this year in the London auctions. The portrait of Eluard is both a work dating from the spirited youth of Dali and a masterpiece combining the myths and symbols of the Dalinian universe. Despite its small size, it got an amazing result: £ 13.5 million including premium.
1929 Pavonia by Picabia
2022 SOLD for € 10M by Sotheby's
Francis Picabia broke with Dada in 1921 and with Breton in 1924. Gertrude Stein will however identify him as the archetype of the surrealist artist. He begins in 1928 his series of Transparences.
Choosing in his art books the images of antique statues and of Renaissance paintings, he copies them in intermingled line drawings without perspective. The viewer is invited to perceive the figures individually and to find a link between them by relying on the title. The artist transcends time by simultaneously referring to several periods of ancient art.
This approach pleases Duchamp who sees in it a non-stereoscopic creation of the third dimension. The title sometimes reveals the origin of the main characters, for example Hera, or Adam and Eve.
The first exhibition took place in Paris in 1928. Léonce Rosenberg, owner of L'Effort Moderne gallery, is convinced and buys for his personal use several paintings which would decorate his apartment alongside works by Léger and De Chirico.
Pavonia is a large size oil on canvas 150 x 170 cm painted by Picabia in 1929 for Rosenberg's apartment. The line figures of the god Pan and of a female centaur are mingled amidst flowers, leaves and birds. The vivid colors including the dominant blue of the sky are rare in that series. It was sold for € 10M from a lower estimate of € 6M by Sotheby's on March 16, 2022, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Also made from the 1929 commissions for the personal use of Rosenberg, Atrata, oil and pencil on panel 150 x 95 cm, was sold for £ 3.7M by Sotheby's on February 26, 2019, lot 38, and Minos, oil, watercolor and pencil on panel 151 x 97 cm, was sold for € 3.96M by Sotheby's on October 21, 2020, lot 10.
Picabia, like Miro, had gone too far in the post-Surréalisme iconoclasm. He terminated his Transparences in 1933. Executed ca 1931, Mélibée, oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm, was sold for € 3.9M by Sotheby's on March 19, 2019, lot 10.
Choosing in his art books the images of antique statues and of Renaissance paintings, he copies them in intermingled line drawings without perspective. The viewer is invited to perceive the figures individually and to find a link between them by relying on the title. The artist transcends time by simultaneously referring to several periods of ancient art.
This approach pleases Duchamp who sees in it a non-stereoscopic creation of the third dimension. The title sometimes reveals the origin of the main characters, for example Hera, or Adam and Eve.
The first exhibition took place in Paris in 1928. Léonce Rosenberg, owner of L'Effort Moderne gallery, is convinced and buys for his personal use several paintings which would decorate his apartment alongside works by Léger and De Chirico.
Pavonia is a large size oil on canvas 150 x 170 cm painted by Picabia in 1929 for Rosenberg's apartment. The line figures of the god Pan and of a female centaur are mingled amidst flowers, leaves and birds. The vivid colors including the dominant blue of the sky are rare in that series. It was sold for € 10M from a lower estimate of € 6M by Sotheby's on March 16, 2022, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Also made from the 1929 commissions for the personal use of Rosenberg, Atrata, oil and pencil on panel 150 x 95 cm, was sold for £ 3.7M by Sotheby's on February 26, 2019, lot 38, and Minos, oil, watercolor and pencil on panel 151 x 97 cm, was sold for € 3.96M by Sotheby's on October 21, 2020, lot 10.
Picabia, like Miro, had gone too far in the post-Surréalisme iconoclasm. He terminated his Transparences in 1933. Executed ca 1931, Mélibée, oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm, was sold for € 3.9M by Sotheby's on March 19, 2019, lot 10.
1929 La Musicienne by Lempicka
2018 SOLD for $ 9.1M by Christie's
La Musicienne is an allegory of music by Tamara de Lempicka featuring a seated handsome woman playing a mandolin with an evasive gaze. The sitter is Ira, the long time lover, confidante and frequent model of the artist.
Lempicka started working on it in 1929 and completed it after a visit to America that was marred by the financial crisis.
This oil on canvas 116 x 73 cm was sold for $ 9.1M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 11, 2018, lot 21A.
Lempicka started working on it in 1929 and completed it after a visit to America that was marred by the financial crisis.
This oil on canvas 116 x 73 cm was sold for $ 9.1M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 11, 2018, lot 21A.
1928-1929 Musicien by Chagall
2007 SOLD for $ 6.9M by Christie's
Marc Chagall is the artist of his poetic dreams inspired by his Jewish childhood. Le Violoniste, painted in Paris in 1912-1913, features a full frontal oversized fiddler flying in the air surrounded by small houses evoking Vitebsk. This street musician has a dark green face. The right foot just over a roof will inspire in 1964 a Broadway musical.
During the first world war, Chagall lost most of his art although some of the works were not destroyed. They were together constituting his own world. Back in Paris in the 1920s, he managed to recreate his most significant themes. Doing it by memory, he brought significant changes. A 1926 replica of Les Trois Acrobates was sold for $ 13M by Christie's in 2013.
A new Violoniste is painted in 1923-1924. The re-arranged cityscape is not untidy. The feet of the green fiddler are posed on two roofs. A raised donkey appealed by the music is a symbol of the artist.
The version painted in 1928-1929, now titled Musicien, is also much modified. The fiddler is now a white bearded old man. His light green face is a more pleasant color and is cleverly opposed by the crimson violet of the coat.
Musicien, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 6.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 31.
The original plundered version has survived. It is now kept by the Stedelijk Museum.
During the first world war, Chagall lost most of his art although some of the works were not destroyed. They were together constituting his own world. Back in Paris in the 1920s, he managed to recreate his most significant themes. Doing it by memory, he brought significant changes. A 1926 replica of Les Trois Acrobates was sold for $ 13M by Christie's in 2013.
A new Violoniste is painted in 1923-1924. The re-arranged cityscape is not untidy. The feet of the green fiddler are posed on two roofs. A raised donkey appealed by the music is a symbol of the artist.
The version painted in 1928-1929, now titled Musicien, is also much modified. The fiddler is now a white bearded old man. His light green face is a more pleasant color and is cleverly opposed by the crimson violet of the coat.
Musicien, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 6.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 31.
The original plundered version has survived. It is now kept by the Stedelijk Museum.
1929 Jeune Fille au Cheval by Chagall
2015 SOLD for £ 5.9M by Christie's
Marc Chagall is deliberately happy in Paris in the late 1920s. He is well immersed in the artistic circles and has a comfortable contract with Bernheim-Jeune.
Jeune Fille au Cheval is a romantic dream gathering many signature lifelong symbols of the artist. A riding girl is mesmerized by a violin played by a fiddler seated on the left side.
The theatrical decor is his childhood city Vitebsk and the fiddler is a Jewish tradition. The bare breasted girl is flowered in her ample skirt. A rider at a first glance, she in fact gently glides atop the smiling light gray circus horse like a blissful apparition. Warm colors within a blue morning mist reinforce the impression of smoothness.
Begun in 1927 and much improved in many details in 1929, this oil on canvas was sold for £ 5.9M from a lower estimate of £ 2.2M by Christie's on February 4, 2015, lot 107.
Jeune Fille au Cheval is a romantic dream gathering many signature lifelong symbols of the artist. A riding girl is mesmerized by a violin played by a fiddler seated on the left side.
The theatrical decor is his childhood city Vitebsk and the fiddler is a Jewish tradition. The bare breasted girl is flowered in her ample skirt. A rider at a first glance, she in fact gently glides atop the smiling light gray circus horse like a blissful apparition. Warm colors within a blue morning mist reinforce the impression of smoothness.
Begun in 1927 and much improved in many details in 1929, this oil on canvas was sold for £ 5.9M from a lower estimate of £ 2.2M by Christie's on February 4, 2015, lot 107.
