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Lot Essay
In this later portrait by O'Conor the sitter's hairstyle, with its wavy fringe and bobbed cut, is very similar to that worn by his mistress, Renée Honta (1894-1955), in a contemporary photograph. She modelled, nude as well as clothed, for many of his pictures from 1916 to 1930, besides practising as a painter is her own right.
The artist has positioned the figure centrally and symmetrically, just as he did with many of his portraits of Breton women 25 years earlier. Her pensive, rather sad expression is complemented by the subdued tones of her clothing and of the background. A reminder of O'Conor's 'fauve' tendencies does come through, however, in the swathes of brighter colour - green, blue ochre and red - with which the figure has been framed. The painterliness of these areas borders on abstraction, taking their cue perhaps from the coarse-toothed canvas which lent itself so well to the expression of texture. It is only after a second glance that we begin to decipher the shape of the artist's studio stove just to the right of the model.
J.B.
The artist has positioned the figure centrally and symmetrically, just as he did with many of his portraits of Breton women 25 years earlier. Her pensive, rather sad expression is complemented by the subdued tones of her clothing and of the background. A reminder of O'Conor's 'fauve' tendencies does come through, however, in the swathes of brighter colour - green, blue ochre and red - with which the figure has been framed. The painterliness of these areas borders on abstraction, taking their cue perhaps from the coarse-toothed canvas which lent itself so well to the expression of texture. It is only after a second glance that we begin to decipher the shape of the artist's studio stove just to the right of the model.
J.B.