Françoise Gilot (France, b. 1921)
This Lot has been sourced from overseas. When au… Read more PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF NANCY ANN CHANDLER
Françoise Gilot (FRANCE, B. 1921)

Paula in a Tunisian dress

Details
Françoise Gilot (FRANCE, B. 1921)
Paula in a Tunisian dress
signed ‘F. Gilot.’ (lower right); titled, dated and inscribed ‘Paula in a Tunisian dress 1960 Paris’ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
92 × 73.5 cm. (36 1/4 × 28 7/8 in.)
Painted in 1960
Provenance
Nancy Ann Chandler, Texas, and thence to the present owner.
Special Notice
This Lot has been sourced from overseas. When auctioned, such property will remain under “bond” with the applicable import customs duties and taxes being deferred unless and until the property is brought into free circulation in the PRC. Prospective buyers are reminded that after paying for such lots in full and cleared funds, if they wish to import the lots into the PRC, they will be responsible for and will have to pay the applicable import customs duties and taxes. The rates of import customs duty and tax are based on the value of the goods and the relevant customs regulations and classifications in force at the time of import.
Further Details
Françoise Gilot has confirmed the authenticity of this work. It is recorded in her archives under the number 481.

Lot Essay

Françoise Gilot knew that she wanted to be an artist from the age of five. Born to a Parisian businessman and a watercolourist, Gilot studied law while secretly continuing her art. At the young age of 21, Gilot was already an accomplished artist in her own right during World War II. After meeting Gilot in a café in the spring of 1943, Pablo Picasso, already a world-famous artist, fell madly in love with her. This meeting marked the beginning of a decade-long romance, during which she was surrounded by the titans of Modernism including Marc Chagall, Georges Braque and Henri Matisse. Currently based in New York, Gilot was recently appointed an Officer of the Légion d'Honneur, one of France's highest distinctions.

Paula, seated centre left, was a good friend of the artist and the subject of several paintings of this period. Her Tunisian dress, refers back to the month-long soujourn that the artist took in May 1956, which would inspire a number of works throughout the rest of that year. This reminiscence is coupled with the introduction of lush vegetation that frames Paula’s head, a motif which would appear as an important subject for the artist in 1961. Paula in a Tunisian Dress therefore brings elements of both series’ together, employing figurative elements to abstract effect. Colour blocks are composed on the canvas in a harmonious and dynamic fashion that, even without any reference to external objects, would operate superbly as an abstract investigation into colour and form. A dominant presence throughout the artist’s painterly oeuvre, the overall bright red here appears luminous, warm and vibrant, recalling the saturated interiors of Matisse, and is activated relation to the hints of blue, orange and pink carefully orchestrated within.

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