Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer

Monsieur Resteau;

With Robinot Frères & Cie, Paris;

With Frank Pietrantonio (1913–1980), Pietrantonio Galleries, New York;

By descent to a private collector;

By whom sold, ('Property of an American Collector'), New York, Christie's, 26 October 2016, lot 39;

With Stair Sainty Gallery, London;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

Lévy-Dhurmer in the early 1920s focused his attention on the important historical and cultural site of Versailles – depicting various scenes in oil, pastel and pencil. The present painting is an exceptional example of his unique and poetic style, capturing the Fountain of Apollo in a magical and dream-like way.

Born to a Jewish family in Algiers, Lévy-Dhurmer began his art studies in Paris and worked as a lithographer before becoming artistic director at the ceramics factory of the well-known Clément Massier in Golfe-Juan, on the French Riviera, in 1887. In the 1890s, Lévy-Dhurmer turned to painting, becoming close to artists associated with the Symbolist movement, including Carlos Schwabe, Alphonse Osbert and Alexandre Séon, and establishing his reputation with an exhibition at Galerie Georges Petit in 1896. His success continued throughout his life, including a retrospective exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1952, the year before his death.

Lévy-Dhurmer’s aesthetic synthesized the tenets of Symbolism – believing that art should reflect a feeling or emotion as opposed to the Realists' impulse to record the natural world – with the influences of his childhood spent in Northern Africa, the arts of Japan and the bright colors of Impressionism. Colour, line, and composition combine to provide an all-encompassing and emotional experience for the viewer. At the turn of the century, Lévy-Dhurmer’s dream-like pictures fit perfectly with the increasingly popular Art Nouveau aesthetic, in which organic forms were reinterpreted with Rococo-inspired decorative flourishes, leading to his increasing artistic success.