1942
April 1942 A Throne for Dora Maar
2018 SOLD for £ 19.4M including premium
It appears that Picasso did not know how to control his emotions. His apparent self-indulgence would therefore be a mask. He bravely chose to stay in Paris during the German occupation but he suffocates psychologically. He feels awkward in self-portraits. Dora once again plays the role of intercessor between the artist and the world.
Dora is a committed intellectual, probably fully aware of her role as a mirror. Eccentric and provocative, she accepts to see her image disfigured by the fantasies of Pablo. In real life she was not the crying woman, despite her political hypersensitivity. Yet she painted self-portraits in this role to give reason to Pablo.
Dora Maar au chat, painted by Picasso in 1941, must be considered in relation to the war. She is locked in her armchair without access to the outside world, as later Francis Bacon's pope. Hope is weak but still exists, marked by the coquetry of the hat and nails and by the freedom of a microscopic cat.
In the following year the atmosphere in Paris is even more painful. Attacks on degenerate art become insistent. Pablo needs Dora but she is threatened by her past as an anti-fascist activist. He locks her back in her chair but equip her with the nose of his Afghan dog so that she is no more recognizable by their persecutors. He will take care much later to state that there was no sadism in his portraits of Dora Maar.
Portrait de femme (Dora Maar), oil on panel 100 x 80 cm painted on August 5, 1942, was sold for $ 22.6M including premium by Christie's on May 6, 2014. On June 20 in London, Christie'ssells as lot 20 B Femme dans un fauteuil (Dora Maar), oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm painted on April 24, 1942.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Dora is a committed intellectual, probably fully aware of her role as a mirror. Eccentric and provocative, she accepts to see her image disfigured by the fantasies of Pablo. In real life she was not the crying woman, despite her political hypersensitivity. Yet she painted self-portraits in this role to give reason to Pablo.
Dora Maar au chat, painted by Picasso in 1941, must be considered in relation to the war. She is locked in her armchair without access to the outside world, as later Francis Bacon's pope. Hope is weak but still exists, marked by the coquetry of the hat and nails and by the freedom of a microscopic cat.
In the following year the atmosphere in Paris is even more painful. Attacks on degenerate art become insistent. Pablo needs Dora but she is threatened by her past as an anti-fascist activist. He locks her back in her chair but equip her with the nose of his Afghan dog so that she is no more recognizable by their persecutors. He will take care much later to state that there was no sadism in his portraits of Dora Maar.
Portrait de femme (Dora Maar), oil on panel 100 x 80 cm painted on August 5, 1942, was sold for $ 22.6M including premium by Christie's on May 6, 2014. On June 20 in London, Christie'ssells as lot 20 B Femme dans un fauteuil (Dora Maar), oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm painted on April 24, 1942.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
August 1942 The Goddess with a Hound Nose
2014 SOLD 22.6 M$ including premium
Dora Maar succeeded Marie-Thérèse Walter in the heart of Picasso during one of the worst periods in the history of the twentieth century. During the Spanish Civil War, Pablo saw in her the Weeping Woman. Despair caused by the Second World War once again changed the image of Dora.
In 1941, Dora is an Enthroned Madonna. Stiff and impassive, she presides over the tragic events from her high armchair. The kitten on the top bar of the seat finds that this goddess is not hostile, but it is a black cat. Dora Maar au Chat, 128 x 95 cm, was sold for $ 95M including premium by Sotheby's on 3 May 2006.
Months pass and Europe plunges deeper into war. On May 6 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on panel painted by Pablo on August 5, 1942, 100 x 80 cm, estimated $ 25M.
This is undoubtedly a new portrait of Dora, identifiable by her seat and her tricorn hat. Pablo deliberately deconstructed her face with a savagery generated by the accumulation of his anxieties.
For Marie-Thérèse and for the beginnings of Dora, the offset position of the eyes had been an impulse of the artist expressing his adoration through a Cubist research of the third dimension. The elephantine nose in profile of the new portrait cannot have a similar cause and also has a complex interpretation.
It is a semaphore warning of the dangers of war. It is also the long thin nose of Pablo's Afghan hound, his other favorite model at that time. If its shape generates a phallic interpretation, this war painting becomes the tragic echo of Le Rêve of Marie-Thérèse, that ultimate expression of happiness painted by Pablo on January 24, 1932.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Dora's war nose did not generate excessive passions. This painting was sold for $ 22.6 million including premium, well below its estimate.
In 1941, Dora is an Enthroned Madonna. Stiff and impassive, she presides over the tragic events from her high armchair. The kitten on the top bar of the seat finds that this goddess is not hostile, but it is a black cat. Dora Maar au Chat, 128 x 95 cm, was sold for $ 95M including premium by Sotheby's on 3 May 2006.
Months pass and Europe plunges deeper into war. On May 6 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on panel painted by Pablo on August 5, 1942, 100 x 80 cm, estimated $ 25M.
This is undoubtedly a new portrait of Dora, identifiable by her seat and her tricorn hat. Pablo deliberately deconstructed her face with a savagery generated by the accumulation of his anxieties.
For Marie-Thérèse and for the beginnings of Dora, the offset position of the eyes had been an impulse of the artist expressing his adoration through a Cubist research of the third dimension. The elephantine nose in profile of the new portrait cannot have a similar cause and also has a complex interpretation.
It is a semaphore warning of the dangers of war. It is also the long thin nose of Pablo's Afghan hound, his other favorite model at that time. If its shape generates a phallic interpretation, this war painting becomes the tragic echo of Le Rêve of Marie-Thérèse, that ultimate expression of happiness painted by Pablo on January 24, 1932.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Dora's war nose did not generate excessive passions. This painting was sold for $ 22.6 million including premium, well below its estimate.
August 1942 Nature Morte by Picasso
2021 SOLD for $ 16.6M by Sotheby's
What to do in Paris when the city is under German occupation while your art is qualified as degenerate by the Nazi and is not allowed to be exhibited ? Picasso meditates about life and death, sharing much time in studio themes such as Dora posing in the armchair and tabletops of flowers and fruits.
Nature morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs is a still life in an oblique Cubist composition reminding Juan Gris. The lines are violent and the dark colors are saturated. A dramatic confrontation opposes two characters, an established basket of figs or plums firmly posed on the table and a warring flower pot which tries to raise from the table side with its leaves folded like spider legs.
This oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm was sold for $ 16.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 7. It had been painted in Paris on August 2, 1942, three days before the portrait of Dora which was sold for $ 22.6M by Christie's in 2014.
Painted in September 1943, Nature morte aux fruits et au compotier is a much quieter and more classical still life proudly dominated by a daisy. This oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm was sold for $ 8.3M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 9.
Nature morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs is a still life in an oblique Cubist composition reminding Juan Gris. The lines are violent and the dark colors are saturated. A dramatic confrontation opposes two characters, an established basket of figs or plums firmly posed on the table and a warring flower pot which tries to raise from the table side with its leaves folded like spider legs.
This oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm was sold for $ 16.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 7. It had been painted in Paris on August 2, 1942, three days before the portrait of Dora which was sold for $ 22.6M by Christie's in 2014.
Painted in September 1943, Nature morte aux fruits et au compotier is a much quieter and more classical still life proudly dominated by a daisy. This oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm was sold for $ 8.3M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 9.
(1941)-1942 Boogie Woogie by Mondrian
2004 SOLD for $ 21M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Fleeing the rise of fascism, Piet Mondrian left Paris for London in 1938 and moved to Manhattan in 1940. He was fascinated by the geometry of streets and skyscrapers and by jazz clubs. He had always loved popular dances, especially the charleston.
During this last period of his life, he worked on six new canvases, which he tirelessly modified in his search for the perfect rhythm and the balance of colors. Three of these works remained unfinished.
The first opus, in 1941, is titled New York. This oil on canvas 95 x 92 cm composed of black verticals and horizontals is not dynamic enough and does not interest anyone. The artist understands that the cause of this failure is the large empty square in the center of the canvas. He completes it in 1942 by adding three red lines as well as a few colored punctuations along the edges which are his first expression of the city's neon lights.
This transformation deserves a new title. The work becomes Boogie Woogie by reference to this style of jazz in which the pianist punctuates with one hand the main rhythm brought by the other hand. This New York Boogie Woogie was sold for $ 21M including premium by Sotheby's on November 4, 2004, lot 7.
Mondrian's last two works, Broadway Boogie Woogie completed in 1943 and the unfinished Victory Boogie Woogie, energize his style by integrating small squares of color into his unlimited lines. His sudden death from pneumonia in February 1944 put an end to this short phase of intense musicality which paved the way for Action painting and Op art.
During this last period of his life, he worked on six new canvases, which he tirelessly modified in his search for the perfect rhythm and the balance of colors. Three of these works remained unfinished.
The first opus, in 1941, is titled New York. This oil on canvas 95 x 92 cm composed of black verticals and horizontals is not dynamic enough and does not interest anyone. The artist understands that the cause of this failure is the large empty square in the center of the canvas. He completes it in 1942 by adding three red lines as well as a few colored punctuations along the edges which are his first expression of the city's neon lights.
This transformation deserves a new title. The work becomes Boogie Woogie by reference to this style of jazz in which the pianist punctuates with one hand the main rhythm brought by the other hand. This New York Boogie Woogie was sold for $ 21M including premium by Sotheby's on November 4, 2004, lot 7.
Mondrian's last two works, Broadway Boogie Woogie completed in 1943 and the unfinished Victory Boogie Woogie, energize his style by integrating small squares of color into his unlimited lines. His sudden death from pneumonia in February 1944 put an end to this short phase of intense musicality which paved the way for Action painting and Op art.
1942 MATISSE
1
January 1942 Odalisque au Fauteuil Noir
2015 SOLD for £ 15.8M by Sotheby's
Matisse's orientalist approach was the excuse for lush compositions where the balance of colors dominated over the detailed line. However, he was working with European and Slavic models.
Matisse certainly appreciated this gap in his art. In the summer of 1940, seeing by chance a young Turkish woman, he is seduced by the regularity of her oriental face. Nézy is 21 years old. Great-granddaughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid, she lives in exile in Nice with her grandmother who accepts that she sits for the artist.
Matisse became seriously ill. Emerging from a long hospitalization in May 1941, he returned to his workshop at the Hôtel Régina. Considering his healing as an unexpected luck, he goes back to an intense work, realizing many drawings of his two muses of that time, Lydia and Nézy.
Painted in January 1942, the Odalisque au fauteuil noir is a portrait of Nézy. This oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm is the culmination of the oriental theme by Matisse. The realistic depiction is limited to the face and arm along with a vase of flowers on a small table. Clothing and decor are a symphony of colors that anticipates the researches of the abstract expressionism.
The Odalisque was sold for £ 6.6M by Christie's on 22 June 2004 and for £ 15.8M from a lower estimate of £ 9M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2015, lot 7.
Matisse certainly appreciated this gap in his art. In the summer of 1940, seeing by chance a young Turkish woman, he is seduced by the regularity of her oriental face. Nézy is 21 years old. Great-granddaughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid, she lives in exile in Nice with her grandmother who accepts that she sits for the artist.
Matisse became seriously ill. Emerging from a long hospitalization in May 1941, he returned to his workshop at the Hôtel Régina. Considering his healing as an unexpected luck, he goes back to an intense work, realizing many drawings of his two muses of that time, Lydia and Nézy.
Painted in January 1942, the Odalisque au fauteuil noir is a portrait of Nézy. This oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm is the culmination of the oriental theme by Matisse. The realistic depiction is limited to the face and arm along with a vase of flowers on a small table. Clothing and decor are a symphony of colors that anticipates the researches of the abstract expressionism.
The Odalisque was sold for £ 6.6M by Christie's on 22 June 2004 and for £ 15.8M from a lower estimate of £ 9M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2015, lot 7.
2
August 1942 Danseuse dans le Fauteuil, Sol en Damier
2007 SOLD for $ 21.7M by Sotheby's
During the summer 1942, Henri Matisse supersedes in his quest of new color compositions the excuse of the odalisques by the geometric pattern of the floor, in saturated blocks.
The sitter for that series is Countess Carla, a friend of the odalisque Nézy. She is displayed in confidence in a blue dancer's attire, languorously reclining on an armchair, a flower in the hair.
Danseuse dans le fauteuil, sol en damier, oil on canvas 46 x 55 cm painted between August 16 and 20, 1942 in the Nice studio, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 21.7M on June 19, 2007, lot 15 and for $ 21M on November 2, 2010, lot 24. The woman is seated in a bold diagonal of the composition.
The sitter for that series is Countess Carla, a friend of the odalisque Nézy. She is displayed in confidence in a blue dancer's attire, languorously reclining on an armchair, a flower in the hair.
Danseuse dans le fauteuil, sol en damier, oil on canvas 46 x 55 cm painted between August 16 and 20, 1942 in the Nice studio, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 21.7M on June 19, 2007, lot 15 and for $ 21M on November 2, 2010, lot 24. The woman is seated in a bold diagonal of the composition.
3
August 1942 Danseuse dans un Intérieur, Carrelage Vert et Noir
2020 SOLD for £ 6.5M by Sotheby's
The next opus is featuring Countess Carla, Danseuse dans un intérieur, carrelage vert et noir, oil on canvas 50 x 61 cm painted in August 21 and 22, 1942.
It was sold for £ 6.5M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 31. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In a complement to the contrast between the woman in blue and the floor, bursting colors are brought by a vase of flowers in the foreground and by the fabric of a rococo armchair.
It was sold for £ 6.5M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 31. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In a complement to the contrast between the woman in blue and the floor, bursting colors are brought by a vase of flowers in the foreground and by the fabric of a rococo armchair.
1942 Shi Tao Cottage by Fu Baoshi
2020 SOLD for RMB 138M including premium by China Guardian
narrated in 2021
Before being one of the most eclectic Chinese artists, Fu Baoshi had been an art historian, specializing in the evolution of styles. He found an inspiration in a landscape painter from the early Qing period named Shi Tao. "Baoshi" means "one who integrates Shi".
Shi Tao's theories establish the link, which will also interest Lacan, between the elementary brushstroke and the universality that the global work can achieve. Shi was influenced by the great innovator Bada Shanren (Zhu Da), with whom he corresponded regularly. Shi works in lines and washes and dilutes his ink to obtain contrasts.
Shi Tao was not looking for fame. He ends his life in a humble cottage near Yangzhou. Very distant geographically from Zhu, they could not meet one another. When Shi asks Zhu to illustrate his new home, it can only be through the imagination.
Much to the delight of his friend Xu Beihong, Fu goes into practice in 1942. He imagines the work that Zhu could have done for Shi. The foreground is occupied by two large trees, in an impressionist blur made up of several densities of wash. Further on, the drawing of the thatched cottage is sharp. Shi is standing in the hallway looking upward to take in the vastness of nature.
This 58 cm wide work on paper is made up of two elements : below, the ink and colors by Fu is 84 cm high ; above, a two-part calligraphy by Xu is 23 cm high. It was sold for RMB 138M including premium by China Guardian on December 1, 2020, lot 185. The image is included by China Daily in their list of the top 2020 Chinese art at auction.
Shi Tao's theories establish the link, which will also interest Lacan, between the elementary brushstroke and the universality that the global work can achieve. Shi was influenced by the great innovator Bada Shanren (Zhu Da), with whom he corresponded regularly. Shi works in lines and washes and dilutes his ink to obtain contrasts.
Shi Tao was not looking for fame. He ends his life in a humble cottage near Yangzhou. Very distant geographically from Zhu, they could not meet one another. When Shi asks Zhu to illustrate his new home, it can only be through the imagination.
Much to the delight of his friend Xu Beihong, Fu goes into practice in 1942. He imagines the work that Zhu could have done for Shi. The foreground is occupied by two large trees, in an impressionist blur made up of several densities of wash. Further on, the drawing of the thatched cottage is sharp. Shi is standing in the hallway looking upward to take in the vastness of nature.
This 58 cm wide work on paper is made up of two elements : below, the ink and colors by Fu is 84 cm high ; above, a two-part calligraphy by Xu is 23 cm high. It was sold for RMB 138M including premium by China Guardian on December 1, 2020, lot 185. The image is included by China Daily in their list of the top 2020 Chinese art at auction.
1942 Standing mobile by Calder
2016 SOLD for $ 8.3M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Alexander Calder, back from Europe in 1933, set up his workshop in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had developed in Paris his new forms of art, the figurative wire sculpture and then the abstract mobile inspired by nature.
Alfred H. Barr Jr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, is a pioneer for the artistic relations between Europe and America. In 1939, he commissions a monumental work to Calder for the staircase of a new MoMA building. Made of steel wire and painted aluminum sheets, Lobster Trap and Fish Tail is a mobile in which the basket is made of steel wire.
Influenced by Mondrian's art, Calder uses pure colors. To introduce a sparkling effect, he makes a few mobiles in which the metal plates are replaced with salvaged glass broken by himself in his workshop.
Relations between Calder and Barr are excellent, including a solo exhibition at MoMA in 1943. The artist would like to offer one of his objects to Barr but the director is reluctant, for ethical reasons.
A standing mobile could finally be offered to Barr in 1966. Executed in 1942, it is a black hook 83 cm high featuring a mobile of ten pieces of glass. Remained in the family, it was sold by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016 for $ 8.3M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 5.
Alfred H. Barr Jr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, is a pioneer for the artistic relations between Europe and America. In 1939, he commissions a monumental work to Calder for the staircase of a new MoMA building. Made of steel wire and painted aluminum sheets, Lobster Trap and Fish Tail is a mobile in which the basket is made of steel wire.
Influenced by Mondrian's art, Calder uses pure colors. To introduce a sparkling effect, he makes a few mobiles in which the metal plates are replaced with salvaged glass broken by himself in his workshop.
Relations between Calder and Barr are excellent, including a solo exhibition at MoMA in 1943. The artist would like to offer one of his objects to Barr but the director is reluctant, for ethical reasons.
A standing mobile could finally be offered to Barr in 1966. Executed in 1942, it is a black hook 83 cm high featuring a mobile of ten pieces of glass. Remained in the family, it was sold by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016 for $ 8.3M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 5.
1942 The Come Back of the Egyptian Beauty
2018 SOLD for € 5.5M including premium
Max Beckmann is in exile in Amsterdam after fleeing the Nazi Germany. After a sarcastic phase he gets worried and bored. One night this esthete sees in a dream a woman's head. On July 27, 1942 he writes in his diary: "A lot of rain but it is very good for my self-portrait and for the woman's head lit from below, done. Good mood, chicken at dinner, and rain, rain, rain".
He had realized the portrait of a primordial woman in an unusual off-centered composition. Her eyes are too large and heavily made up as in the funeral portraits of the Fayum. The attitude is solemn. The angle of illumination leaves the face half in the shadows and reinforces the mystical illusion : it is recommended to raise this little image above a candle.
The entourage of Beckmann is not mistaken. The title is found : Die Ägypterin, the Egyptian. The artist has met his Nefertiti. This famous name meant "beauty has come".
This oil on canvas 60 x 30 cm is immediately bought by a friend who will later start the catalogue raisonné of Beckmann. The list is finished by his widow and this painting now comes from her estate, 76 years after the original acquisition. It is estimated € 1.5M for sale by Grisebach in Berlin on May 31, lot 20. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
This theme born of a hallucination pleased the artist. Italienerin is very similar excepted for the light that is flat. This 55 x 22 cm oil on canvas painted in 1946 was sold for £ 1.15M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2010 over a lower estimate of £ 400K.
He had realized the portrait of a primordial woman in an unusual off-centered composition. Her eyes are too large and heavily made up as in the funeral portraits of the Fayum. The attitude is solemn. The angle of illumination leaves the face half in the shadows and reinforces the mystical illusion : it is recommended to raise this little image above a candle.
The entourage of Beckmann is not mistaken. The title is found : Die Ägypterin, the Egyptian. The artist has met his Nefertiti. This famous name meant "beauty has come".
This oil on canvas 60 x 30 cm is immediately bought by a friend who will later start the catalogue raisonné of Beckmann. The list is finished by his widow and this painting now comes from her estate, 76 years after the original acquisition. It is estimated € 1.5M for sale by Grisebach in Berlin on May 31, lot 20. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
This theme born of a hallucination pleased the artist. Italienerin is very similar excepted for the light that is flat. This 55 x 22 cm oil on canvas painted in 1946 was sold for £ 1.15M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2010 over a lower estimate of £ 400K.
