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89 - BAYA (Fatma Haddad Mahieddine(Algeria, Bordj el Kiffan 1931 …
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Estimate €50,000 - €80,000
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Description
BAYA (Fatma Haddad Mahieddine(Algeria, Bordj el Kiffan 1931 - Blida 1998) Untitled, said woman and butterflies, circa 1945 Gouache and pencil strokes on paper pasted on cardboard. 92.5 x 57.3 cm Unsigned. *** Gouache and pencil on paper laid on card, unsigned (36⅜ × 22½ in.) This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Comité Baya. Provenance: Frank Turner Collection (1898-1984), an active figure in Algerian cultural circles, representative of the British Council, acquired directly from Marguerite Caminat (then Mrs McEwen) in Algiers, then kept in the family. In this work, Baya depicts a female figure whose face is only sketched in pencil, almost dissolved, while the dress occupies the bulk of the composition: its wide concentric borders, punctuated with pearls and white dots, transform the garment into ornamental architecture. The work enters into a direct dialogue with Femme en vert (c. 1947, 90.5 × 65 cm, private collection), exhibited two years later at the Galerie Maeght, with a very similar formal programme: the same monumentality of the figure, the same effacement of the face in favour of the garment, the same grammar of dots scattered over the coloured surfaces, the same presence of butterflies. But where Femme en vert asserts a chromatic fullness, this composition retains breathing zones that show Baya on the threshold of her first period. Baya did not title her works; the customary title Femme et papillons (Woman and Butterflies), handed down by the Turner family, has referred to this gouache ever since it was acquired. It is part of the first Algerian circle to receive Baya's work, prior to its revelation in Paris in 1947. Frank Turner - a pianist and composer born in Algiers of English parents, with musical training in Paris and London, author of the original score of Prométhée enchaîné at the Théâtre du Travail in 1937 - an institution directed by Albert Camus at the time - then director of the English municipal library and representative of the British Council in Algiers from 1944 to 1947 - belonged to the heart of the intellectual and artistic milieu in Algiers between the wars and in the post-war period. It was through this network that Turner met Frank McEwen and his wife Marguerite Caminat. Caminat, a documentary filmmaker who had moved to Algiers from occupied France, played a decisive role in the emergence of Baya: it was with her that the young artist discovered drawing and painting. In a 1986 testimonial, Caminat emphasised her rapid transition to large formats: "At first, it was on small papers, but very quickly she moved on to large formats". Given its exceptional size (92.5 cm), produced before Baya systematically signed her works, this composition bears witness to precisely this seminal moment. Turner's role as one of Baya's earliest admirers is attested by a letter from the cadi Benhoura to Albert Camus on 22 September 1947, in which he is mentioned - along with Nelly Marez Darley, Éliane Pérès and Jean de Maisonseule - as one of those who "particularly love Baya". This mention, made at the same time as the artist's first Paris exhibition, gives this work major documentary value, as evidence of an early, informed and enduring view of Baya's work in the years leading up to 1947, within the Algerian circles that accompanied and supported its emergence.
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About the sale Arab, African & Indian Modernities
Auction location
Auction time 06/18/2026 at 2:30 PM
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