Jean Dubuffet

Galerie Daniel Cordier, Paris

Mr. & Mrs. Robert B. Mayer, Winnetaka, Illinois (acquired from the above and sold: Parke-Bernet Gallery, New York, October 25, 1972, lot 80)

Stephen Hahn, New York (acquired at the above sale)

Acquired from the above before 1974

Max Loreau, Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Paris, 1965, no. 155, illustrated p. 85 (with incorrect measurements)

Excellent condition. Under UV, no evidence of retouching. The surface is fresh and the impasto is intact.
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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Bursting with vibrancy, Vieille reine et courtisan is from Jean Dubuffet’s series, Paris Circus. Beautifully composed with expressive color and a faultless display of decisive and heavily impastoed brushwork, the present work is charged with psychological and emotional expression inspired by the frenetic urban commotion that Dubuffet witnessed on his return to Paris in 1961.

The immediate force and vigor of execution felt with Vieille reine et courtisan demonstrates Dubuffet's intimate psychological response to the city and its inhabitants that stood before him. In this dramatic painting we bear witness to Dubuffet’s masterful handling of paint application and structural composition presenting “not only a gripping visual programme but also the heightened effect of painterly impulses and autonomous values” (Andreas Franzke cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Salzburg, Museum de Moderne, Jean Dubuffet, 2004, p. 162).

In 1955 Dubuffet had abandoned the war-scarred and melancholic French capital to take a house in Vence in the South of France. During this period, Dubuffet shunned any sense of human presence from his work and nature became the primary source of his investigations. As a direct response to this remoteness of rural life, and in contrast to his exploration of the tactile qualities of materials- there was a change in Dubuffet’s work that marked a completely new departure when he returned. There, he found a city completely unlike the one he had left; optimism and cosmopolitan bustle had replaced the gloom and despondency that had formerly prevailed under German occupation. This new vibrant atmosphere was intoxicating for Dubuffet and had an immediate and explosive effect on his work, which culminated in the exuberant Paris Circus pictures. Where Dubuffet had previously celebrated natural life on a small intimate scale, he now celebrated the energy of the Paris bustling boulevards on a grand scale.

The later pictures of the Paris Circus, like Vieille reine et courtisan, employ less specific references to Paris. There are fewer urban scenes and fewer landscapes, and more focus on the individuals that resided in the city. Vieille reine et courtisane employs a radical handling of color that had been absent from Dubuffet’s earlier work. When examining Dubuffet's career and the Paris Circus pictures specifically, one can draw clear comparisons to Jean-Michel Basquiat, who 20 years later would amply demonstrate his gifts as the 1980s art world's enfant terrible.