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Lot Essay
Christine Lenoir and Maria de la Ville Fromoit have confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Probably painted in the mid-1920s in Le Cannet, Modele assise sur un fauteuil is a wonderful example of Lebasque’s painterly investigations of the nude form. A naked woman sits on a blue upholstered armchair in a beautifully decorated interior, sunlight edging uin. By painting the model in a haze of warm, natural light and with her gaze hidden, Lebasque has created a scene simultaneously rich in sensuality and intimacy. The artist’s fascination for texture, colour and luxuriant fabrics, learned from his neighbour, Matisse, is here suggested by the colourful rug in the foreground, and the blue curtain and flowered wallpaper behind the sitter. While the present work shares with Matisse’s nudes and and in particular his odalisques, a strong interest in decorative patterns, Lebasque is clearly moving away from the intellectual flair of Matisse’s painting to achieve a greater sense of naturalism. As Lisa A. Banner has written on Lebasque’s 1920s nudes, these were “the culmination of [his] intimist manner of painting—the celebration of the female form as fertile, warm, and inspiring... Matisse’s nudes of the same period, painted in his neighbouring villa on the Riviera, share his rich decorative sense, but approach the nude in a more intellectual style, as opposed to Lebasque’s sensuous style. Lebasque painted his young models in poses of penetrating intimacy and subtle clarity” (Lebasque, exh. cat., Montgomery Gallery, San Francisco, 1986, pp. 70 and 72).
Probably painted in the mid-1920s in Le Cannet, Modele assise sur un fauteuil is a wonderful example of Lebasque’s painterly investigations of the nude form. A naked woman sits on a blue upholstered armchair in a beautifully decorated interior, sunlight edging uin. By painting the model in a haze of warm, natural light and with her gaze hidden, Lebasque has created a scene simultaneously rich in sensuality and intimacy. The artist’s fascination for texture, colour and luxuriant fabrics, learned from his neighbour, Matisse, is here suggested by the colourful rug in the foreground, and the blue curtain and flowered wallpaper behind the sitter. While the present work shares with Matisse’s nudes and and in particular his odalisques, a strong interest in decorative patterns, Lebasque is clearly moving away from the intellectual flair of Matisse’s painting to achieve a greater sense of naturalism. As Lisa A. Banner has written on Lebasque’s 1920s nudes, these were “the culmination of [his] intimist manner of painting—the celebration of the female form as fertile, warm, and inspiring... Matisse’s nudes of the same period, painted in his neighbouring villa on the Riviera, share his rich decorative sense, but approach the nude in a more intellectual style, as opposed to Lebasque’s sensuous style. Lebasque painted his young models in poses of penetrating intimacy and subtle clarity” (Lebasque, exh. cat., Montgomery Gallery, San Francisco, 1986, pp. 70 and 72).