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48
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Henri HAYDEN (Warsaw 1883 – Paris 1970)
See original version (French)
48
-
Henri HAYDEN (Warsaw 1883 – Paris 1970)
See original version (French)
Estimate €30,000 - €40,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Henri HAYDEN (Warsaw 1883 – Paris 1970)
Self-portrait of the painter
Painted in 1915
Oil on canvas
60 x 46 cm
Signed and dated lower left ‘Hayden 1915’
(re-stretched)
A certificate by Pierre Célice dated 2018 will be provided to the purchaser. This work will be included in the catalogue raisonné.
Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Henri Benezit,
then passed down through inheritance
Henri Hayden was a Polish painter and draughtsman of the École de Paris. He was born in Warsaw in 1883 into a family of merchants. From 1902, he studied at the Warsaw University of Technology and the School of Fine Arts. Henri Hayden moved to Paris in 1907, setting up a studio on Boulevard Saint Michel, and studied at the ‘La Palette’ academy. From 1909 onwards, the painter made regular trips to Brittany, to Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu, where he met his elder, Wladyslaw Slewinski. From 1914 onwards, he associated with the Cubists – Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Jean Metzinger – and gradually developed a Cubist pictorial language.
Henri Hayden painted this self-portrait in 1915 at a pivotal moment in his career, between his Cézanne-inspired period and his gradual move towards Cubism. Henri Hayden depicts himself in a bust portrait, viewed slightly in three-quarter profile, in a space defined behind him by a wall and a green curtain.
He depicts himself with his face turned towards the viewer, his gaze direct and determined. The eyes, rendered as two solid, almost entirely black masses, lend the face a striking intensity, whilst the pursed lips reinforce the expression of introspection.
The face forms a key focal point of the composition. Hayden does not seek to reproduce his features in minute detail: he constructs them using broad swathes of light and shadow. The forehead, nose, cheekbones and cheek are strongly modelled by areas of brown, ochre and black. The warm, side-lit light brings certain parts of the face into relief, whilst others remain shrouded in darkness.
The colour palette, deliberately restricted and subdued, reflects the pivotal nature of the work, created at a time when a stylistic shift was beginning to take hold in Hayden’s painting.
Painted in 1915, this rare self-portrait offers a valuable insight into the artist’s practice and occupies a significant place within his body of work.
E.V
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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