Cercles descendant

Details

Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957)
Cercles descendant
signed 'Kupka' (lower left); with the estate stamp and the studio stamp (on the reverse)
gouache, paper collage and pencil on paper
11 7/8 x 11in. (30 x 28cm.)
Executed circa 1931-1935

Provenance

Eugénie Kupka, the artist's wife.
Acquired from the above by Galerie Drouant-David (before 10 November 1957).
Acquired from the above by Rose Fried Gallery, New York on 10 October 1958.
Peggy Conahan, San Francisco (no. 62-3).
Private collection, USA.
Anon. sale, London, Phillips, 27 June 1994, lot 38.
Acquired at the above by the father of the present owner.

Exhibited

London, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Modernist Art from the Emery Collection, July-Aug. 1999, no. 6 (illustrated p. 41). This exhibition later travelled to Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Sept.-Nov. 1999.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Kupka executed pencil studies on the reverse of the work, and scribbled Czech cviceni v kruzich a spiralach ('exercises for circles and spirals').

This work bears a label from Eugénie Kupka on the reverse, stating 'Je certifie que cette aquarelle-gouache, datant autours de 1929, est de la main de Frank Kupka, mon mari. Eugénie Kupka, Paris le 18 mai 1958'. However, in the 1999 exhibition catalogue (op. cit.), the work is dated circa 1931-35.

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