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Lot Essay
Untitled is a rediscovered gem, kept for many decades in the collection of Robert and Christine Lelion, a French couple most famous for having gathered a collection of 1930s Art Deco jewellery.
This unique example of work on paper depicting chrysanthemum flowers in a glass beaker vase and dated as early as 1930 prefigure the highly sought-after series of flowers that Sanyu painted from the 1930s to 1950s. In the artist's catalogue raisonné of drawings and watercolours, only one other example of flowers in a see-through vase is known (fig. 1), and oil paintings of that same subject are excessively rare (fig. 2).
Sanyu was knowledgeable about different kinds of papers, as demonstrated by his skilful use of textured watercolour paper or buvard paper, but for the most part, he could not afford fine materials. This singular work is painted on the reverse of an invitation card to a paintings exhibition by Korda in 1930, a vestige of the effervescent art scene in Paris at that time.
This unique example of work on paper depicting chrysanthemum flowers in a glass beaker vase and dated as early as 1930 prefigure the highly sought-after series of flowers that Sanyu painted from the 1930s to 1950s. In the artist's catalogue raisonné of drawings and watercolours, only one other example of flowers in a see-through vase is known (fig. 1), and oil paintings of that same subject are excessively rare (fig. 2).
Sanyu was knowledgeable about different kinds of papers, as demonstrated by his skilful use of textured watercolour paper or buvard paper, but for the most part, he could not afford fine materials. This singular work is painted on the reverse of an invitation card to a paintings exhibition by Korda in 1930, a vestige of the effervescent art scene in Paris at that time.