Roger de la Fresnaye (French, 1885-1925) - Femme Nue Couchée

Monumental 90% life size nude model painting executed during the zenith and birth of cubism and expressionism. 

Oil on canvas

Canvas: 26.75 x 41.25 inches. (67.9 x 104.8cm)

Framed: 35.5 x 49.6 Inches

Executed circa 1910.

Provenance

Galerie Maurice Robinet, Paris, France.

Galerie de Berri, Paris, France.

Cyril W. Adams, London.

Galerie Mouradian et Valloton, Paris, France.

B.C. Holland Gallery, Chicago, Illinois.

Sotheby's, New York, sale of May 8, 1991, lot 154.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Exhibition

“Roger de la Fresnaye,” Maison de la Pensée Française, Paris, France, February-March, 1949, no. 19.

“Roger de la Fresnaye,” Musée de Lyon, Lyon, France, 1951, no. 10.

“Roger de la Fresnaye,” Galerie de l'Institut, Paris, Paris, November-December, 1962, no. 8.

Literature

Germain Seligman, Roger de La Fresnaye: With a Catalogue Raisonné, New York Graphic Society, Ltd., New York, 1969, p. 132, no. 63 (illustrated).

NOTE: This Catalogue Raisonne will accompany this sale.

Condition:

The relined canvas in overall good condition, with a shiny finish most likely due to an excess of varnish. Slight craquelure visible in the upper right quadrant, as well as at upper center left, in the background. Some of the cracks are textured, and wide but they are overall stable. Examination under UV light indeed reveals a heavy layer of greenish varnish throughout the work. Small areas of restoration at upper center right and in the upper right quadrant (locally, in the background), as well as at center right, in between the model's leg. We also notice small repairs at bottom center (near the bottom outer edge, touching the model's finger tips). Small retouching on the model's right ribs and part of her stomach (very small). Minor dots of inpainting in the bottom left corner too. The face is intact. See Specialist's pictures for more details.

Roger de la Fresnaye, a French painter associated with the Cubist movement (and the Section d’Or group of artists in particular) visited Munich in 1909, marking a pivotal juncture in his career. The city was a hub for avant-garde experimentation, and La Fresnaye’s work c. 1909-10 reveals an increasing departure from traditional representation, anticipating his later, full-throated engagement with Cubism. Influenced by a fertile artistic environment and, perhaps, by German Expressionism, paintings like the present lot herald La Fresnaye’s earliest experimentations with form, color, and spatial relationships.

Executed c. 1910, Femme Nue Couchée signals an auditioning of proto-Cubist principles and, seemingly, the artist’s indebtedness to his classical education. (From 1903-08, he studied at the Académie Julian and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.) Embracing geometric abstraction and fragmented forms, La Fresnaye depicts the female form with a lively interplay of angles and curves. Employing broad planes of color, an earthy palette, and a careful treatment of light, shade, and space, the composition strikes a balance between analytical Cubist deconstruction and sensual, figurative elegance. Painting, according to La Fresnaye, was “becoming significantly more abstract.” In the present work and others, “imitations of nature are giving way to deliberate and reasoned studies.”

La Fresnaye’s Munich sojourn marks a critical and transitional phase in his artistic development–one in which he contributed to the evolving dialogue within the Cubist movement, while offering a unique perspective on the relationship between traditional themes and avant-garde expression.

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