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Lot Essay
Jean Fabris has confirmed the authenticity of this work on 26th November 2015.
Françoise Gilot, Tamara de Lempicka and Suzanne Valadon, established themselves in the cosmopolitan and fiercely competitive city of Paris, and early in their careers often held the multiple positions of artist, muse and model. Resilient and dedicated, each with very different characters, they each convey an unwavering and unique artistic vision that has ensured their places in the forefront of 20th century art.
Both Gilot and Lempicka, represented in the two following works, having been both witnesses and active participants in the fervent beginnings of Modernism in Europe, later, moved to New York, where they came into contact with oneanother. Both Soleil et Récifs and Composition were created during the early 1960s when they both inhabited this city and display their respective explorations of abstraction. Lempicka, took an immediate liking to fiercely intelligent Gilot and after Lempicka’s death in 1980, Gilot wrote of her in The Arts and Antiques Magazine:
“From the glow in her eyes to the rapid tempo of her movements, she radiated power, energy and determination… The first quality of an artist is to be intelligent, she’d say, coming closer to me and probing deep into my eyes with a hypnotic stare.“
Born in 1865, Suzanne Valadon was the first female artist ever to be admitted into the prestigious Société National des Beaux-Arts. Having worked as a circus performer and artist’s model (most famously as the model for Renoir’s iconic Dance at Bougival), she went on to have a highly successful 40 year career as a painter. She first began showing her work in the 1890s and regularly exhibited at the prestigious Parisian gallery Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. She re-invented the typical subject matter of her contemporaries with strong compositions and colours, as well as the characteristic dark lines that often frame the subjects of her works. Valadon was the mother of artist Maurice Utrillo, accounting for the additional ‘V’ for Valadon which he would sign after his name.
Françoise Gilot, Tamara de Lempicka and Suzanne Valadon, established themselves in the cosmopolitan and fiercely competitive city of Paris, and early in their careers often held the multiple positions of artist, muse and model. Resilient and dedicated, each with very different characters, they each convey an unwavering and unique artistic vision that has ensured their places in the forefront of 20th century art.
Both Gilot and Lempicka, represented in the two following works, having been both witnesses and active participants in the fervent beginnings of Modernism in Europe, later, moved to New York, where they came into contact with oneanother. Both Soleil et Récifs and Composition were created during the early 1960s when they both inhabited this city and display their respective explorations of abstraction. Lempicka, took an immediate liking to fiercely intelligent Gilot and after Lempicka’s death in 1980, Gilot wrote of her in The Arts and Antiques Magazine:
“From the glow in her eyes to the rapid tempo of her movements, she radiated power, energy and determination… The first quality of an artist is to be intelligent, she’d say, coming closer to me and probing deep into my eyes with a hypnotic stare.“
Born in 1865, Suzanne Valadon was the first female artist ever to be admitted into the prestigious Société National des Beaux-Arts. Having worked as a circus performer and artist’s model (most famously as the model for Renoir’s iconic Dance at Bougival), she went on to have a highly successful 40 year career as a painter. She first began showing her work in the 1890s and regularly exhibited at the prestigious Parisian gallery Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. She re-invented the typical subject matter of her contemporaries with strong compositions and colours, as well as the characteristic dark lines that often frame the subjects of her works. Valadon was the mother of artist Maurice Utrillo, accounting for the additional ‘V’ for Valadon which he would sign after his name.