Beschreibung:

HENRI LEBASQUE (1865-1937) Nu assis sur un canapé près de la fenêtre signed 'Lebasque' (lower right) oil on canvas 21 1/2 x 25 3/4 in (54.6 x 65.4 cm) Painted in 1934-35 Fußnoten Provenance M. Norman Mason (acquired from the artist). Anderson Galleries, Beverly Hills. Sylvia P. Preston, New York (by descent from the above, and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 7, 2013, lot 125). Private collection, Miami (acquired at the above sale). Literature D. Bazetoux, Henri Lebasque, Catalogue raisonné, vol. I, Neuilly-sur-Marne, 2008, no. 1076 (illustrated p. 269). "Lebasque's primary concerns, in the majority of his work, were with simple expression of sensuous surface. He wrestled with the problems of showing wind on water, or of the warmth seeping into a woman's skin under a sunny sky. It is evident in all of Lebasque's work as in the group of nude paintings completed at Le Cannet, that Lebasque developed the sureness to define the gains of his early experiments. He achieved an intimate manner of painting those scenes and people most dear to him, which was replete with his personal delight in form and color, and heightened by his contact with fellow painters Matisse and Bonnard, but characteristically his own" (L. Banner, Lebasque 1865 – 1937, San Francisco, 1986, p. 20). Nu assis sur un canapé près de la fenêtre was painted by Henri Lebasque from 1934-1935. The painting's subject matter, composition, and palette evince the artist's strong links to contemporaries Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard founders of Les Nabis, a group of Intimist painters that focused on the quiet serenity of the domestic sphere. "Intimism, a term which best describes Lebasque's painting, refers to the close domestic subject matter, supremely realized by Bonnard and Vuillard, in such a manner as to convey the personal nature of his response to the thing painted, and the universal familiarity of home and family. There is a sense of calm infused in Lebasque's paintings which celebrates the fullness and richness of life. In his placid scenes of gardens and beaches, terraces and dinner tables, Lebasque portrays his family in particular, but in such a way that he appeals to a larger sense of family gathering and devotion" (L. Banner, Lebasque, 1865 – 1937, San Francisco, 1986, p. 12). Lebasque's Nu assis sur un canapé près de la fenêtre depicts a tranquil, private moment. A seated nude figure is bent in reverie, examining her foot. The form overtly references the Classical sculpture motif of the Fedele/Fedelino or Spinario, the shepherd boy who has paused to remove a thorn from his foot by resting one leg on top of the other. Extant examples of this sculptural theme range from the Greco-Roman Hellenistic bronze found today at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome to Roman marble versions at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence and British Museum, London to a Renaissance copy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Dutch Golden Age interpretation at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Lebasque may have studied firsthand the bronze Renaissance version included in the permanent collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Although the specific posture of the nude figure quotes canonical ancient sculpture, the atmosphere Lebasque conjures in this peaceful painting is deeply rooted in the artistic movements contemporary to its execution. "Lebasque's vision of life led him to concentrate upon intimate domestic scenes and close, interior compositions. He was hailed as the painter of "Joy and Light" by art critics and curators of the Louvre in his later life. But Lebasque's primary concerns were with simple expression of sensuous surface... He achieved an intimate manner of painting those scenes and people most dear to him, which was replete with his personal delight in form and color, heightened by his contact with fellow painters Matisse and Bonnard, but characteristically his own" (ibid., p. 20). Lebasque's rich textures of color and pattern delineating the textiles strewn on the chaise