Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)
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Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)

La perruche d'argent

Details
Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)
La perruche d'argent
signed 'van Dongen' (lower right); signed, titled and inscribed 'van Dongen la perruque d'argent Paris 29 Villa Saïd' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
28¾ x 23 5/8 in. (73 x 60.1 cm.)
Painted in 1919
Provenance
Edouard des Courières, Paris, probably commissioned directly from the artist and thence by descent to the present owner.
Literature
E. des Courières, Van Dongen, Paris, 1925 (illustrated p. 40).
J.M. Kyriazi, Van Dongen après le Fauvisme, Lausanne, 1987 (illustrated p. 33).
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

To be included in the forthcoming Kees van Dongen Catalogue raisonné being prepared by Jacques Chalom des Cordes under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.

In 1916 Van Dongen moved into a grand appartment at 29, rue de la Villa Saïd, in the elegant XVIe arrondissement, where he painted, displayed his work and lavishly entertained. La perruche d'argent, can been seen in a photograph of the period (fig. 1). It was during this period that Van Dongen began an affair with socialite Léo Jacob, known as Léo Jasmy or Jasmy La Dogaresse, who possessed 'la beauté et le élégance d'un grand mannequin' (L. Chaumeil, Van Dongen, Geneva, 1967, p. 168). Her social connections assisted Van Dongen's entry into the most fashionable salons of the post-war period or les années folles. Dominated by aristocrats and newly wealthy entrepreneurs, the chic circles in Parisian society made Van Dongen their favorite portraitist, Chaumeil called him 'peintre et roi de son temps' (ibid., p. 216).

La perruche d'argent was probably commissioned directly from the artist by Edouard de Couriéres and was included in his lavishly illustrated 1925 Van Dongen monograph (op. cit., p. 40). The painting has remained in the de Courières family collection until the present day.

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