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拍品专文
Wanda de Guébriant has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
Le pont de Sèvres au chaland was painted in the late summer or autumn of 1917, during one of Matisse's excursions to the outskirts of Paris when he would pass the time driving around the countryside with his son Pierre in search of subjects to paint. Pursuing a more naturalistic means of expression, Matisse experimented with painting a number of views seen through the windshield of his car. Jack Flam noted that "these landscapes must be seen as experiments not only in styles but in the kinds of reactions that one can have to a place or motif. Matisse has painted very different kinds of reaction to very similar motifs, ranging from the lyrical to the violent, the descriptive to the evocative...Now, having become a great modernist, he turned again to the complex visual stimulation of landscapes to free himself of old habits and let the masters of nineteenth-century French landscape painting guide him back to the appearance of the real world from which his work had become progressively removed" (op. cit., pp. 461-462). In several smaller versions of the aforementioned series the outline of the windshield is indicated by a diagonal line bisecting the frame. The larger scale and openness of the present composition, which was not painted through Matisse's windshield, provides a far calmer and more graceful effect in contrast.
It was also during this time that Matisse first visited Nice in the south of France, hoping to avoid another cold and dismal winter in wartime Paris. He enjoyed the Mediterranean light in winter--although it was less dazzling than in the summer, it created a more subtle array of colors, which are reflected in Le pont de Sèvres au chaland. The Midi was Paul Cézanne's country, and Matisse discovered that the late master, the godfather of early 20th century modernism, had successfully conveyed in his paintings the light and color of his native landscape. An even more significant revelation for Matisse at this time was his encounter with another master of the south, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who was then still living and painting in nearby Cagnes-sur-Mer. Matisse visited Renoir on the last day of 1917, and saw him several times again during the following year before returning north in late spring. Although Renoir had suffered from crippling arthritis for many years, he still painted every day except Sunday. Matisse admired the old man's fortitude and his unshakable dedication to art.
The second recorded owner of the present painting was the celebrated writer W. Somerset Maugham. Though his plays are little remembered today, he was among the most successful dramatists of his day, with four of his shows running in London at one time in 1908. Flush with theatrical success, Maugham began collecting in earnest around the publication of The Moon and Sixpence (1919), his fictionalized account of Paul Gauguin's life. He donated his theatrical pictures--his collection of which was, in his own words, "second only to that of the Garrick Club"--to the Trustees of the National Theatre in 1948 and auctioned part of his modern paintings collection in 1962.
Le pont de Sèvres au chaland was painted in the late summer or autumn of 1917, during one of Matisse's excursions to the outskirts of Paris when he would pass the time driving around the countryside with his son Pierre in search of subjects to paint. Pursuing a more naturalistic means of expression, Matisse experimented with painting a number of views seen through the windshield of his car. Jack Flam noted that "these landscapes must be seen as experiments not only in styles but in the kinds of reactions that one can have to a place or motif. Matisse has painted very different kinds of reaction to very similar motifs, ranging from the lyrical to the violent, the descriptive to the evocative...Now, having become a great modernist, he turned again to the complex visual stimulation of landscapes to free himself of old habits and let the masters of nineteenth-century French landscape painting guide him back to the appearance of the real world from which his work had become progressively removed" (op. cit., pp. 461-462). In several smaller versions of the aforementioned series the outline of the windshield is indicated by a diagonal line bisecting the frame. The larger scale and openness of the present composition, which was not painted through Matisse's windshield, provides a far calmer and more graceful effect in contrast.
It was also during this time that Matisse first visited Nice in the south of France, hoping to avoid another cold and dismal winter in wartime Paris. He enjoyed the Mediterranean light in winter--although it was less dazzling than in the summer, it created a more subtle array of colors, which are reflected in Le pont de Sèvres au chaland. The Midi was Paul Cézanne's country, and Matisse discovered that the late master, the godfather of early 20th century modernism, had successfully conveyed in his paintings the light and color of his native landscape. An even more significant revelation for Matisse at this time was his encounter with another master of the south, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who was then still living and painting in nearby Cagnes-sur-Mer. Matisse visited Renoir on the last day of 1917, and saw him several times again during the following year before returning north in late spring. Although Renoir had suffered from crippling arthritis for many years, he still painted every day except Sunday. Matisse admired the old man's fortitude and his unshakable dedication to art.
The second recorded owner of the present painting was the celebrated writer W. Somerset Maugham. Though his plays are little remembered today, he was among the most successful dramatists of his day, with four of his shows running in London at one time in 1908. Flush with theatrical success, Maugham began collecting in earnest around the publication of The Moon and Sixpence (1919), his fictionalized account of Paul Gauguin's life. He donated his theatrical pictures--his collection of which was, in his own words, "second only to that of the Garrick Club"--to the Trustees of the National Theatre in 1948 and auctioned part of his modern paintings collection in 1962.