Willem De Kooning

Allan Stone Gallery, New York (acquired directly from the artist)
Private Collection
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Allan Stone Gallery, Willem De Kooning: Liquefying Cubism, October 1994 - January 1995, cat. no. 52, illustrated in color
New Britain, Connecticut, New Britain Museum of American Art, The Body Revealed: Two Hundred Years of the American Nude, April - June 2002, fig. 40, p. 49, illustrated in color
Greenwich, Connecticut, Bruce Museum, The Great American Nude, June - September 2002
Miami, Art Basel, Allan Stone Gallery, Willem de Kooning: Slipping Glimpses 1920s to 1960s, December 2006, p. 28, illustrated in color

Siri Huntoon, "Willem de Kooning/Allan Stone," Art News, March 1995, p. 123, illustrated in color
L.P. Streitfeld, "'The Great American Nude' sparkles in Greenwich," TIME, p. D4 (text reference)

This painting is in excellent condition. Please contact the Contemporary Art department at 212-606-7254 for a condition report prepared by Terrence Mahon. The work is framed in a dark brown bevelled wood frame with small float.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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In 1963, Willem de Kooning left New York City for the pastoral scenery of East Hampton, New York- the dramatic change in environment proved to be a catalyst for a shift in the artist's work. In East Hampton, de Kooning found himself deeply moved by the surrounding greenery and began to incorporate it into his work by means of a series of paintings representing female figures in landscapes. In these works, de Kooning returned to the subject responsible for his initial success: the woman.

De Kooning's depictions of women are some of the most significant paintings of the Post War period. They are known for their dense physicality, gestural brushwork and the overtly sexualized manner in which the artist approaches the female form—her body, skin and features. However, unlike his more aggressive, maniacal, and even grotesque looking women of the 1950's, his East Hampton women have an overall ebullience. As art historian Thomas Hess writes, "de Kooning's pictures of the 1960s are drained of the anguish and look of despair which had so profoundly marked his earlier work. In the new Woman, the mood is Joy" (Thomas B. Hess, de Kooning: Recent Paintings, New York, 1967, p. 43).

The present work, executed in 1965-66, depicts the image of a woman more softly, but without sacrificing its expressiveness. The painting is a prime example of de Kooning's work from this period. An explosion of bright, vivacious colors, the canvas is built by the artist's signature bold strokes and rich painterly layers of color yet conveys the female form with a new tenderness and sense of harmony with nature. The work depicts a nude figure whose milky pink limbs are delineated in a robust red. She embodies the pastoral environs of the artist's home which he hints at with the use of bright blues and greens. Though balanced and elegant, the composition still pulsates with a rhythmic tension created by the elaborate color schemes and the subject's fleshy folds. However like other females from this period, this woman is no longer menacing. Gone are the harsh black lines and jagged edges. She is soft, warm, welcoming and one with the space in which she lives.