Mon ami, Jean Cocteau

Details

Roger De La Fresnaye (1885-1925)
Mon ami, Jean Cocteau
signed and dated 'R de la Fresnaye 1912' (lower right) and inscribed 'mon ami, Jean Cocteau' (center left)
gouache, watercolor, colored wax crayons and charcoal on paper
12 ½ x 9 3/8 in. (32 x 23.3 cm.)
Executed in 1912

Provenance

Private collection, Paris.
Anon. sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 10 April 1987, lot 40.
Acquired at the above sale by Achim Moeller Fine Art on behalf of John C. Whitehead.

Literature

Achim Moeller Fine Art, ed., From Daumier to Matisse, Selections from the John C. Whitehead Collection, exh. cat., Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York 2002, p. 20 (illustrated in color).

Exhibited

The Montclair Art Museum, Late XIX and Early XX Century French Masters, The John C. Whitehead Collection, April-June 1989, p. 31, no. 41 (illustrated, p. 26).
New York, Achim Moeller Fine Art, The Whitehead Collection, Late 19th and 20th Century French Masters, A Collection in Progress, New York, April-May 1997, p. 156, no. 92 (illustrated in color, p. 157).

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Lot Essay

Though the present work is dated 1912, De la Fresnaye did not meet Jean Cocteau until several years later. The artist has here likely reworked an earlier watercolor from 1912, adding the likeness of his friend Cocteau at a later date. De la Fresnaye completed two other portraits of Cocteau in 1921 (Seligman, nos. 495 and 496).

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