Lot 371
  • 371

Eva Gonzalès

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Eva Gonzalès
  • Le Bouquet de Violettes
  • Stamped Eva Gonzalès (lower left); with a label inscribed by the artist's father Le Bouquet de violettes, pour [ou par] Eva Gonzalès, donné par M. Gonzalès, père en 1884 on the reverse; inscribed Déclaré authentique, Eva Gonzalès, Paris le 2 mars 1896, H. Guérard by the artist's husband on the stretcher
  • Oil on canvas
  • 13 1/8 by 11 1/2 in.
  • 33.5 by 29.1 cm

Provenance

The artist's studio, Paris, 1883
Private Collection (a gift from Emmanuel Gonzalès in 1884)
Galerie Eugène Blot (acquired in the 1920s)
Horndasch Collection, Munich
Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired in the early 1960s)

Condition

Canvas is not lined. Surface is slightly dirty. There is some minor frame abrasion visible along upper edge, generally outside of image area. Under UV light there are several strokes of inpainting in foreground at lower right as well as one pindot at center of left edge and a few small strokes at upper left corner to address minor fram abrasion. Overall the work is in good condition.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Devastated by Eva Gonzalès’ untimely death in childbirth at the age of 34, her father Emmanuel was at first extremely reluctant to part with the paintings she had left behind in her studio and he only ever did so when gifting works to close friends of the family. Such was the case with the present work, a charming still life of remarkably delicate tonalities which he inscribed on the reverse to mark the occasion. Aware that Emmanuel Gonzalès' handwriting was not easy to decipher in this instance—in particular, his scribbling of the word par/pour—and presumably still in contact with the original recipients of the work, Gonzalès' husband Henri Guérard sought to clarify the issue by re-affirming the authenticity of this painting himself with an inscription added over a decade later, on March 2, 1896.

The sole pupil of Édouard Manet, Eva Gonzalès achieved considerable success within Parisian art circles during her lifetime. Manet was the single greatest influence on Gonzalès' artistic style and the present work, with its gloriously staccato-like brushwork and closely-cropped composition, is not without affinity to his celebrated late still-lifes (fig. 1). In subject matter, too, Gonzalès’ Le Bouquet de violettes bears elegant witness to the fascination which the exotic held for the artist and her contemporaries. Since the early 1860s, the importation of Japanese objects and ornaments—fans, porcelains, kimonos—had excited a great vogue for the Japanese aesthetic and Gonzalès’ inspired incorporation of a fan and a small ornamental figurine dressed in a kimono inextricably links her to the greatest painters of the era.