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Lot Essay
The Comité Picabia has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
Picabia's early neo-impressionist works, initially directed by the Impressionism of Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, were soon refined by a greater interest in form and composition. While the artist is most renowned for his dada and surrealist works, he is exceptional in that these early impressionist paintings were not merely a passing phase but rather a major period that found success and recognition among his peers.
According to William A. Camfield, "Through mid-1908, Picabia oscillated between objective and subjective modes of Impressionism, but in the autumn of 1908 both were supplanted by a third mode which may be described as neo-impressionist. As was his custom, Picabia revisited his old sites, this time reducing the composites to more simplified forms which are ranged in planes parallel to the picture surface and rendered with a system of uniformly size, brick-like brushstrokes. These features, reminiscent of the contemporary work of that proselytizing neo-impressionist Paul Signac, transmit a stronger sensation of structure, order and permanence. But in contrast to Signac, Picabia remains more concerned about the specific site, and his bright palette suggests less interest in neo-impressionist color theory than a concern for the blazing, natural light of the Midi and the influence of Fauvism" (Francis Picabia, His Art, Life and Times, Princeton, 1979, p. 13).
Picabia's early neo-impressionist works, initially directed by the Impressionism of Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, were soon refined by a greater interest in form and composition. While the artist is most renowned for his dada and surrealist works, he is exceptional in that these early impressionist paintings were not merely a passing phase but rather a major period that found success and recognition among his peers.
According to William A. Camfield, "Through mid-1908, Picabia oscillated between objective and subjective modes of Impressionism, but in the autumn of 1908 both were supplanted by a third mode which may be described as neo-impressionist. As was his custom, Picabia revisited his old sites, this time reducing the composites to more simplified forms which are ranged in planes parallel to the picture surface and rendered with a system of uniformly size, brick-like brushstrokes. These features, reminiscent of the contemporary work of that proselytizing neo-impressionist Paul Signac, transmit a stronger sensation of structure, order and permanence. But in contrast to Signac, Picabia remains more concerned about the specific site, and his bright palette suggests less interest in neo-impressionist color theory than a concern for the blazing, natural light of the Midi and the influence of Fauvism" (Francis Picabia, His Art, Life and Times, Princeton, 1979, p. 13).