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Lot Essay
To be included in the forthcoming Kees van Dongen catalogue raisonn being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute, Paris.
Van Dongen achieved sensational success as a painter of beautiful, fashionable women. As Andr Warnod wrote in 1925 "the richest American women, the most elegant French women, would dispute among themselves the honour of being painted by him" (Les berceaux de la jeune peinture, Paris 1925). "He made no secret of the fact that he liked painting women...He was anxious to render the long line of a woman trained by sport, with large eyes, long eyelashes, satin or opaque skin, white, ochre, rose or green, as well as pearls and diamonds" (D. Sutton, exh. cat., Van Dongen, Arizona 1971, p. 50).
"On dit une femme de Van Dongen comme on dit une femme de Lautrec. Cette femme est dmesurment serpentine, flexible comme une liane, les jambes fuseles, les seins hauts, les joues platres de fard, des yeux immenses cerns de kohl, la bouche d'un rouge saignant de grenade entrouverte" (L. Vauxcelles, exh. cat., Van Dongen, Paris 1938).
Van Dongen achieved sensational success as a painter of beautiful, fashionable women. As Andr Warnod wrote in 1925 "the richest American women, the most elegant French women, would dispute among themselves the honour of being painted by him" (Les berceaux de la jeune peinture, Paris 1925). "He made no secret of the fact that he liked painting women...He was anxious to render the long line of a woman trained by sport, with large eyes, long eyelashes, satin or opaque skin, white, ochre, rose or green, as well as pearls and diamonds" (D. Sutton, exh. cat., Van Dongen, Arizona 1971, p. 50).
"On dit une femme de Van Dongen comme on dit une femme de Lautrec. Cette femme est dmesurment serpentine, flexible comme une liane, les jambes fuseles, les seins hauts, les joues platres de fard, des yeux immenses cerns de kohl, la bouche d'un rouge saignant de grenade entrouverte" (L. Vauxcelles, exh. cat., Van Dongen, Paris 1938).