Lot Essay
Painted circa 1929, Nu Rose, is a crucial link in the artist's struggle to express his perception of the relationship between man and his environment.
A constant throughout his oeuvre, the subject of the nude woman appears first in 1925-26, treated in sombre colours where darkish red overtones light up black, nearly undiscernable figures, reminiscent of early stone idols and cave paintings. Friends and relatives of the artist recall his fascination several years later when confronted with the simple beayty of the Lascaux paintings, so similar in spirit and treatment to the Nus Noirs.
In 1927-28, the so called "Nus noirs" of 1926 make way for the "Nus gris", slightly thicker in paint and with clearer outlines. In these, the voluptuousness of tones and matter make the figure come off the canvas making it more human and physically present. Interestingly, this period also corresponds to Fautrier's first attempts at sculpture: a dozen small bronze figures and heads dating from 1927-1929 echo his efforts to simplify the realistic forms of his subject matter.
It is during 1928 that Fautrier first experiments building up his paintings towards "informel". Yves Peyré notes that "the Port Cros landscapes illustrate the conflict between peace and torment, flatness and impasto, expressing the artist's embarassment to treat his own intefirst break in the artist's maturing development."
From four small but important nudes painted in 1928-29, L'Homme Ouvert and the three Chirst en Croix, Fautrier leaps to images announcing his later Otages: Nu Couché (in the collection of the Musé d'Art Moderne, Paris) and Nu Rose.
Nu Couché and Nu Rose share many attributes but differ on a very important point. Of similar, large dimensions, both represent a reclining female figure, resting on her side, yet nearly crouching as if to protect herself. In both works the nude female seems detached from her background, her weight, yet obviously supported by a firm base and protected by a hallo drawn in black, reminiscent of a cocoon. Open in her nudity and oblivious to onlookers, she seems totally at ease and rested in the knowledge that the heavy wavy black lines form a safe fortress.
But whereas in Nu Couché, Fautrier seems to revert to an earlier thinner treatment of the matter, Nu Rose stands out by the monumentality and thick rendering of the figure and the hallo, almost as if it was painted on an irregular and solid surface of rock, not a canvas.
The 1930s were not a very prolific period for Fautrier and 1929 seems, in retrospect to have been a culminating point until, what Ragon calls his "come back" of the Otages where the previously experimented "tormented impasto and superenameled thickness" ripens into being. Ragon recalls Fautrier saying that had it not been for the economic crisis that drove him from Paris (to the Alps) the Otages, in their technique if not in their subject, should have been painted ten years before 1943.
To be included in the forthcoming Jean Fautrier Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Marie-José Lefort, Galerie Jeanne Castel, Paris
A constant throughout his oeuvre, the subject of the nude woman appears first in 1925-26, treated in sombre colours where darkish red overtones light up black, nearly undiscernable figures, reminiscent of early stone idols and cave paintings. Friends and relatives of the artist recall his fascination several years later when confronted with the simple beayty of the Lascaux paintings, so similar in spirit and treatment to the Nus Noirs.
In 1927-28, the so called "Nus noirs" of 1926 make way for the "Nus gris", slightly thicker in paint and with clearer outlines. In these, the voluptuousness of tones and matter make the figure come off the canvas making it more human and physically present. Interestingly, this period also corresponds to Fautrier's first attempts at sculpture: a dozen small bronze figures and heads dating from 1927-1929 echo his efforts to simplify the realistic forms of his subject matter.
It is during 1928 that Fautrier first experiments building up his paintings towards "informel". Yves Peyré notes that "the Port Cros landscapes illustrate the conflict between peace and torment, flatness and impasto, expressing the artist's embarassment to treat his own intefirst break in the artist's maturing development."
From four small but important nudes painted in 1928-29, L'Homme Ouvert and the three Chirst en Croix, Fautrier leaps to images announcing his later Otages: Nu Couché (in the collection of the Musé d'Art Moderne, Paris) and Nu Rose.
Nu Couché and Nu Rose share many attributes but differ on a very important point. Of similar, large dimensions, both represent a reclining female figure, resting on her side, yet nearly crouching as if to protect herself. In both works the nude female seems detached from her background, her weight, yet obviously supported by a firm base and protected by a hallo drawn in black, reminiscent of a cocoon. Open in her nudity and oblivious to onlookers, she seems totally at ease and rested in the knowledge that the heavy wavy black lines form a safe fortress.
But whereas in Nu Couché, Fautrier seems to revert to an earlier thinner treatment of the matter, Nu Rose stands out by the monumentality and thick rendering of the figure and the hallo, almost as if it was painted on an irregular and solid surface of rock, not a canvas.
The 1930s were not a very prolific period for Fautrier and 1929 seems, in retrospect to have been a culminating point until, what Ragon calls his "come back" of the Otages where the previously experimented "tormented impasto and superenameled thickness" ripens into being. Ragon recalls Fautrier saying that had it not been for the economic crisis that drove him from Paris (to the Alps) the Otages, in their technique if not in their subject, should have been painted ten years before 1943.
To be included in the forthcoming Jean Fautrier Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Marie-José Lefort, Galerie Jeanne Castel, Paris