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Lot Essay
Sold with a photo-certificate from the Wildenstein Institute, numbered 01.04.02.7889.1591 and dated Paris le 2 avril 2001, stating that the present work will be included in their forthcoming Kees van Dongen catalogue raisonné.
The modernity and seduction of Paris in the 1900s is wonderfully conveyed in La Réussite. Executed with characteristically incisive brushstrokes and demonstrating an instinctive feel for colour, it pays homage to Van Dongen's favourite subject - the depiction of strikingly glamourous women.
The Impressionists first adopted the exuberant hustle and bustle of Paris street-life as a modern artistic theme. Whilst they were mesmerised by the newly renovated railway stations and the wide boulevards designed by Haussmann, the next generation of artists chose to radicalise this theme, and made the people of the streets the protagonists of their work. Couples of lovers lost in the alleys of Montmartre, dancers and prostitutes on the front of Pigalle music-halls, saltimbanques and performers in the cafés chantants became the icons of the sketches and canvases of Toulouse-Lautrec, Steinlen, Van Dongen and Picasso.
The energy and motion of the modern city is perfectly translated by the present drawing. The carriage wheels are placed at jaunty angles across the bottom of the sheet, deftly creating circular counterpoints to the parasol, which forms the apex of a pyramid. Parts of the cream paper are left uncoloured to form highlights across sections of the girl's parasol, her fluttering shawl, and frilly petticoat spilling out from beneath her skirt. Areas of luminosity contrast adeptly with the confident and brash brushstrokes in black ink. For all her flamboyance, the girl averts her gaze from the viewer, as she responds to it with the sharpest smile.
A hymn to the Réussite ('success') of the woman around whom the story pivots, this sheet is certainly the most impressive and finished of the whole series drawn by Van Dongen for the Assiette au beurre.
The modernity and seduction of Paris in the 1900s is wonderfully conveyed in La Réussite. Executed with characteristically incisive brushstrokes and demonstrating an instinctive feel for colour, it pays homage to Van Dongen's favourite subject - the depiction of strikingly glamourous women.
The Impressionists first adopted the exuberant hustle and bustle of Paris street-life as a modern artistic theme. Whilst they were mesmerised by the newly renovated railway stations and the wide boulevards designed by Haussmann, the next generation of artists chose to radicalise this theme, and made the people of the streets the protagonists of their work. Couples of lovers lost in the alleys of Montmartre, dancers and prostitutes on the front of Pigalle music-halls, saltimbanques and performers in the cafés chantants became the icons of the sketches and canvases of Toulouse-Lautrec, Steinlen, Van Dongen and Picasso.
The energy and motion of the modern city is perfectly translated by the present drawing. The carriage wheels are placed at jaunty angles across the bottom of the sheet, deftly creating circular counterpoints to the parasol, which forms the apex of a pyramid. Parts of the cream paper are left uncoloured to form highlights across sections of the girl's parasol, her fluttering shawl, and frilly petticoat spilling out from beneath her skirt. Areas of luminosity contrast adeptly with the confident and brash brushstrokes in black ink. For all her flamboyance, the girl averts her gaze from the viewer, as she responds to it with the sharpest smile.
A hymn to the Réussite ('success') of the woman around whom the story pivots, this sheet is certainly the most impressive and finished of the whole series drawn by Van Dongen for the Assiette au beurre.