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Lot Essay
"In 1949, [de Staël's] image became tranquil and static. His palette lightened still further, white, yellow, black and grey predominating, with green, blue and red occasionally playing a part as essential contrasts to the cooler colors...this transformation in tonality finds its counterpart in a new method of composition for the most part the paint is applied with a knife and each block has a distinctive, though not necessarily a pure, tonality. They are not defined by outlines, but separated one from another, the space between being left free to reveal a contrasting under paint, which may be fiery or cool according to the tonality above. Thus the final effect can be likened to that of patchwork, or even to a brick wall... There is however nothing haphazard about the arrangement of forms and colors in these paintings. These have been carefully considered and the whole design properly balanced they are more or less a direct equivalent of things seen, for de Staël was always making notes in sketch-books of arrangements of forms and colors which he observed in nature and it was on these that he drew for his seemingly non-figurative Compositions. We must not attempt to read these pictures literally, but must be content instead to let our senses register whatever impressions they receive and then we shall find ourselves drawn into a painter's world which is a transposed image of some aspects of reality." (D. Cooper, Nicolas de Staël: Masters and Movements, Bergamo, 1961, pp. 24 and 33)