His inspiration for another style was triggered by the football match between France and Sweden on 26 March 1952. The event was not only interesting the followers of sport : it was one of the first games played at evening under floodlights in the Parc des Princes.
The artist perceives the color of this unusual light and the endless motion of the colored jerseys. He will now rely on his memory to recreate his vibrant impressions through compositions in the midst between abstract and figurative.
In the days following the match, de Staël painted 25 variations on the theme of the football players, recreating in some way in this set all the variety of action and movement. An oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 10, lot 17.
Until the untimely end of his life, de Staël reuses this exhausting method based on his sensorial memory, in other themes of which the most successful will be the travel in Sicily and the nude. His mental health will collapse in this frenzy.
He was a pioneer at a time when artificial colors of advertisings were invading our environment, driven by the increasing ease to achieve a suitable color photography.