Lot 346
  • 346

Kees van Dongen

Estimate
600,000 - 800,000 USD
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Description

  • Kees van Dongen
  • Maisons à Amsterdam
  • Signed Van Dongen (lower center)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 25 5/8 by 21 1/4 in.
  • 65.2 by 54.1 cm

Provenance

Pieter Van der Velde, Le Havre
Galerie Schmit, Paris
Private Collection, Paris

Exhibited

Moscow, Zolotoe Runo (Golden Fleece), 1908, no. 52
St. Tropez, Musée de l’Annonciade & Toulouse, Réfectoire des Jacobins, Kees Van Dongen, 1985, no. 20
Paris, Galerie Schmit, De Corot à Picasso, 1985, no. 23
Paris, Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Van Dongen, Le peintre (1877-1968), 1990, no. 123
Monte Carlo, Nouveau musée national de Monaco, Kees Van Dongen, 2008, no. 91, illustrated in color in the catalogue p. 142

Literature

Jean-Jacques Lévêque, Les Années de la Belle Époque, Paris, 1991, illustrated p. 467
Claude Jeancolas, L’Art Fauve, Paris, 2006, illustrated p. 29
All Eyes on Kees Van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Musée Bojimans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2010, illustrated p. 73.
Van Dongen – Fauve, anarchiste et mondain (exhibition catalogue), Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, 2011, illustrated p. 88

Condition

In very good condition. The canvas is unlined. The surface has a rich impasto. A few thin cracks in the red pigment are visible. Under UV light a few small spots of inpainting are visible in the darker red pigment and a few small spots on the upper left edge and upper center edge. In overall 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

In 1907, van Dongen returned to his native Holland from Paris with Paul Signac to research pictures by van Gogh with the intention of organizing an exhibition at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. This exuberant view of an Amsterdam street with terraced, multicolored townhouses was most likely painted during this trip. The vigorous execution, generous impasto and intensely bright palette bear all the hallmarks of the artist's Fauvist style, while the composition represents a rare foray into urban landscape for a painter better known for his portraits.

As Jean-Jacques Lévêque writes, "With vibrant, light brushstrokes, which are playful as well as profound, the painter depicts a street and the lives hiding behind the facades, as well as the facades themselves, which are not merely the background to a stage set, but rather the gateway to an entire chronicle that remains to be invented" (Jean-Jacques Lévêque, op. cit., p. 466, translated from the French).

The offered work was exhibited in the groundbreaking exhibition Zolotoe Runo (Golden Fleece)in Moscow the year after is was painted. There remains an image of this work hanging in the exhibition alongside masterpieces of the early Russian avant-garde.