Galerie Dreyfus
44
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MOÏSE KISLING (KRAKOW, 1891 – SANARY-SUR-MER, 1953)
Bouquet …
See original version (French)
44
-
MOÏSE KISLING (KRAKOW, 1891 – SANARY-SUR-MER, 1953)
Bouquet …
See original version (French)
Estimate €72,000 - €90,000
Voluntary lot
Description
MOÏSE KISLING
(KRAKOW, 1891 – SANARY-SUR-MER, 1953)
Bouquet of Mimosas
Circa 1930
Oil on canvas
38 x 55 cm
Signed lower left ‘Kisling’
Provenance
From the artist’s studio collection
Certificate
Michel Kisling
‘Mimosas were the flowers that gave my father the most work. He would paint
each ball one by one, swiftly rotating his brush, which was generously coated
with paint. At the end of the movement, he would quickly pull his hand back, creating a small
point, a very shallow relief.” Jean Kisling
In an explosion of light, this myriad of yellow dots fills almost
the entire composition. A volcanic eruption, a golden geyser, fireworks… this profusion
of yellow dots strikes the retina until it is dazzled. A real challenge in painting! However,
this juxtaposition of dots owes nothing to the optical blending of Seurat’s Pointillism. Here,
it is quite simply a matter of depicting mimosa flowers, those tiny yellow balls
that are fragile and silky. The painter therefore chooses to render the mass of flowers through this meticulous
arrangement of small, regular yellow dots, side by side, in relief, using an almost
naïve technique. This impasto effect thus perfectly matches the very texture of this
grainy flower. Devoid of any leaves, the bouquet emerges from the stem of a brown vase, which accentuates
the analogy with a volcano. The choice of blue—the complementary colour to yellow—as the background colour
enhances the power of this floral mass. Understated, effective and balanced, the composition unfolds
in a blaze of light thanks to the presence, here and there, of a few white dots which, like
glints of light, lend the whole a sparkling effect, whilst others, brown like
the vase, add depth. A tree of exotic origin that flowers in winter in the south
of France, the mimosa literally fascinated Kisling, who made it a recurring motif throughout
his career. As if in an exercise in style, the artist painted dozens of bouquets
of mimosas from the 1920s onwards, but particularly from 1937, when he moved into his villa
La Baie, which he had built in Sanary-sur-Mer. He drew his subject matter directly from his
garden, where the Acacia dealbata flourished. Beyond his exploration of still life and the
fluffy, shifting texture of this delicate flower, the artist sought, through this colourful and
vibrant mass, to evoke the warm light of the Midi.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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