Nu

Details

Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Nu
signed 'C.Brancusi' (lower right)
blue crayon on paper
14¼ x 10½ in. (36 x 26.5 cm.)

Provenance

Private collection, Zurich, by whom acquired directly from the artist, and thence by descent to the present owners.

Literature

C. Giedion-Welcker, Constantin Brancusi, Neuchâtel, 1958, p. 188 (illustrated pl. 109; dated '1920-1922').

Exhibited

Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Constantin Brancusi, April - August 1995, no. 123 (illustrated p. 296); this exhibition later travelled to Philadelphia, Museum of Art.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

Nu belongs to a series of drawings that Margit Rowell terms the ‘Sculpted Drawings’: ‘the technique precisely echoes the sculptor’s working gestures and the tactile nature of his vision. Some of these works are autonomous images; others prefigure or are reminiscent of existing sculptures. Using graphite or coloured pencils with wide, flat leads, Brancusi hollowed and heightened, flattened and rounded out his motif, sculpting his volumes through a fluid juxtaposition of broad planes. […] In comparison with most of Brancusi’s drawings, these works show an uncommon ease and self-assurance. And precisely what could be more natural to the sculptor’s vision than to shun the line and soften the contours? This is the hand of the sculptor at work, squaring, cutting, or polishing his material to bring out its volumes and ensnare the light’ (M. Rowell, exh. cat., Constantin Brancusi, Philadelphia, 1995, pp. 287 & 288).

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