Lot 7
7
Joseph H. Hazen (1898-1995) Joseph H. Hazen enjoyed a remarkable career in the Hollywood film industry, from his first involvement as a young lawyer with Warner Brothers working on the sound rights to "The Jazz Singer" in 1927 to the last film he produced, "Anne of the Thousand Days" in 1970. His career spanned the Golden Age of Hollywood and his long partnership with Hal B. Wallis, in the film industry's first independent production company, was an integral part of the legend. He and Wallis were to bring such stars as Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster into the movies and they introduced Anna Magnani, Charlton Heston and Shirley MacLaine, amongst many others. They signed Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis for Paramount and brought Elvis Presley to the screen. The list of their notable films is long and varied, ranging from "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" (1946) and "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1957) to adaptations of Tennessee Williams's "The Rose Tattoo" (1955) and Jean Anouilh's "Beckett" (1964). Simultaneously, Hazen was developing both his passion for collecting, initially inspired by Edward G. Robinson, and his philanthropic interests through the establishment of the Joseph H. Hazen Foundation in 1957. The bulk of his superb and sensitively chosen collection, at which he worked continuously, reading in depth and visiting museums and art galleries at every opportunity, was formed in the 1950's. It highlighted the greatest artistic achievements of the last one hundred years including as it did, major works by Degas and Van Gogh, by Picasso and Léger, by Gris and Kandinsky and Miró. Curtailed only by an ultimate lack of wall space, it culminated in works by Johns, Pollock, Dubuffet and Hartung. The collector's undiluted enthusiasm for sharing his paintings with others and his desire for lively debate and correspondence were admired by all in the field; and he was unfailingly kind and generous to this writer in making his collection available on many an enjoyable afternoon when the pleasure he derived from his pictures and his lucid grasp of his subject were made fully palpable. But in all accounts of Joseph Hazen's life, the most remarkable and consistent feature -- for a man who had been at the center of the highly competitive and not always pleasant environment of the film industry -- was his unshakable moral and intellectual strength, "his supreme intellect and gentle humanity." To have remained as genuinely modest and self-effacing, to have maintained his great interest in history, art and literature, and to have been as philanthropic in the arts, in medicine and in education and as interested in others as he was, was surely his finest achievement and greatest gift. His unique blend of intelligence and courtesy, of enthusiasm and quiet charm will always be remembered. And he richly deserved what he himself described as "a good and most satisfying life." Christopher Burge
RAOUL DUFY (1877-1953)

Nature morte [Still Life]

Details
RAOUL DUFY (1877-1953)
Nature morte [Still Life]
signed bottom right 'Raoul Dufy'
oil on canvas
28 5/8 x 36 in. (72.7 x 91.4 cm.)
Painted in 1920
Provenance
Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Le Portique, Paris
Otto M. Gerson, New York
Acquired from the above by Mr. Joseph H. Hazen on Jan. 5, 1952
Literature
C. Zervos, Raoul Dufy, Paris, 1928, no. 27 (illustrated)
J. Cassou, Raoul Dufy: Poète et Artisan, Paris, 1946, no. 4 (illustrated in color)
M. Raynal, Dufy: Masterpieces of French Painting, Geneva, 1953, no. 3 (illustrated)
J. Lassaigne, Dufy, Lausanne, 1954, p. 37 (illustrated)
M. Laffaille, Raoul Dufy, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Geneva, 1977, vol. III, p. 332, no. 1332 (illustrated)
Exhibited
Jerusalem, Israel Museum, Paintings from the Collection of Joseph H. Hazen, summer, 1966, no. 7 (illustrated). The exhibition traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, Oct.-Dec., 1966; Los Angeles, University of California, The Art Galleries, Jan.-Feb., 1967; Berkeley, University of California, Art Museum, Feb.-March, 1967; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, April-May, 1967, and Honolulu, Academy of Arts, June-Aug., 1967.

Lot Essay

The present picture is the largest of two similar still lifes which Dufy executed in 1920 (Lafaille, no. 1315). Dufy painted very few still lives as complex as the present one, with its many components laid out on an upwardly-tilted tabletop in a carefully balanced composition. This vibrant painting depicts elements of everyday French culture, including half-filled decanters of wine, bowls of apples and berries, wine glasses and melon.

With a compressed space that pays homage to Cézanne and a color scheme which belies Dufy's roots in the Fauve tradition, the present painting is an important one in the artist's oeuvre, witness to his already mature style.