Lot Essay
Painted in 1949, Manoir en Sologne exhibits all the most magical and dream-like characteristics of Vieira da Silva's art. Echoing the stance of a Baudelarian flâneur, Vieria da Silva claimed her objective was simple: "Mon secret est regarder la nature. Je passe mon temps, ma vie à regarder." However, as Manoir en Sologne reveals, the resultant canvases were more complex. Rejecting a literal translation of reality, Vieira da Silva chose instead to conceive a vision of the world in which her imagination and her senses participated equally.
"I look at a street", she wrote, "and I see people passing on foot or on various machines at various speeds. I think of the invisible threads that pull them. They don't have the right to stop. I no longer see them. I try to see the mechanism that moves them. That seems to me a little of what I am trying to paint." (As quoted in: "Daily Telegraph", Obituary of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, London 12 March 1992.)
In Manoir en Sologne, a labyrinth of interlocking squares and rectangles dominates the canvas while a network of sharply receding perspectives converge on a central vanishing point. The spectator's eye is immediately drawn to this opening as a way out of the complex web of lines. However, other perspectives then assert themselves and the spectator is forced into what Léon Kochnitzky has identified as, "the contemplation of the infinitesimal", searching for other possible routes through the artist's Kafkaesque world.
The multiple levels of narration in Manoir en Sologne is central to Vieira da Silva's art. Only by untangling the threads of representation, can the spectator discern within Manoir en Sologne the presence of an internal scene, the corridors unfolding into a maze of passageways.
Vieira da Silva's restricted palette, and the softly muted colours, further adds to the spectator's sense of unease. The almost universal use of grey, ochre and blue is broken only by an intermittent square of white, red or black, primarily in the foreground of the work. The effect of this change of palette is to draw the spectator further into the scene, in search of an illusory vanishing point.
"I look at a street", she wrote, "and I see people passing on foot or on various machines at various speeds. I think of the invisible threads that pull them. They don't have the right to stop. I no longer see them. I try to see the mechanism that moves them. That seems to me a little of what I am trying to paint." (As quoted in: "Daily Telegraph", Obituary of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, London 12 March 1992.)
In Manoir en Sologne, a labyrinth of interlocking squares and rectangles dominates the canvas while a network of sharply receding perspectives converge on a central vanishing point. The spectator's eye is immediately drawn to this opening as a way out of the complex web of lines. However, other perspectives then assert themselves and the spectator is forced into what Léon Kochnitzky has identified as, "the contemplation of the infinitesimal", searching for other possible routes through the artist's Kafkaesque world.
The multiple levels of narration in Manoir en Sologne is central to Vieira da Silva's art. Only by untangling the threads of representation, can the spectator discern within Manoir en Sologne the presence of an internal scene, the corridors unfolding into a maze of passageways.
Vieira da Silva's restricted palette, and the softly muted colours, further adds to the spectator's sense of unease. The almost universal use of grey, ochre and blue is broken only by an intermittent square of white, red or black, primarily in the foreground of the work. The effect of this change of palette is to draw the spectator further into the scene, in search of an illusory vanishing point.