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Lot Essay
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Van Dongen catalogue raisonné being prepared by Jacques Chalom Des Cordes under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute, Paris.
By the mid-1930s Van Dongen was established in a large and busy studio befitting his position as the witty chronicler bar-none of the Parisian beau monde. In describing this studio in the 1950s, Alexander Lieberman has written that, 'it made me think of a ballroom on some giant transatlantic liner as it sailed on its last crossing. Imaginary portraits of first-class patrons were its passengers. Kees van Dongen, his beret at a rakish angle, his white beard jauntily trimmed, was in command on the imaginary deck of the studio floor' (see The Artist in his Studio, New York 1988, p. 98).
The studio was situated at 75 rue de Courcelles, a street which runs just to the north of the Étoile and its bellicose centrepiece, the Arc de Triomphe. It would therefore not have involved a long expedition for Van Dongen to reach the vantage point from which the present work was painted.
By the mid-1930s Van Dongen was established in a large and busy studio befitting his position as the witty chronicler bar-none of the Parisian beau monde. In describing this studio in the 1950s, Alexander Lieberman has written that, 'it made me think of a ballroom on some giant transatlantic liner as it sailed on its last crossing. Imaginary portraits of first-class patrons were its passengers. Kees van Dongen, his beret at a rakish angle, his white beard jauntily trimmed, was in command on the imaginary deck of the studio floor' (see The Artist in his Studio, New York 1988, p. 98).
The studio was situated at 75 rue de Courcelles, a street which runs just to the north of the Étoile and its bellicose centrepiece, the Arc de Triomphe. It would therefore not have involved a long expedition for Van Dongen to reach the vantage point from which the present work was painted.