Henri Lebasque

Private Collection, France
Richard Green Galleries, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner

The present work is one of Lebasque's iconic portrayals of the female nude.  Lisa Banner highlights the importance of the female nude in Lebasque's oeuvre, "Lebasque displays this model at ease in the sunny interiors of his house at Le Cannet, in various close and revealed poses, full of gentle curves in movement and stroke of colors... Henri Lebasque invites the viewer into this intimate and private world, laden with the power of suggestion and seduction...These women softened and full as the bodies of Renoir's nudes, have a substance and naturalism which make them immediately pleasing. They are presented in a manner to suggest the artist's ease with his model and her naturalness with him."  (L. Banner & P. Fairbanks, Henri Lebasque, San Francisco, 1986, p. 74)