André Masson

Alfred Richet was born in Paris in 1893 and grew up in an atmosphere of enlightened bourgeois liberalism. His life long vocation as a collector of modern art was initially aroused when he received a Signac watercolour as a Christmas gift from his mother in 1913. At the end of the First World War he helped André Level set up the Galerie Percier in Paris, with avowed intention of promoting young contemporary artists. It soon became a meeting place for artists, collectors and dealers such as Dufy, Cocteau, André Lefèvre and Ambroise Vollard. Lefèvre was a particular friend and a major collector of cubist and other 20th Century masters, and he had an early influence on Richet's collection. The present work had been owned by Lefèvre and was bought by Richet in the sale of his collection in 1964. Richet was also instrumental in persuading his friend Zette Leiris to 'legalise' the Galerie Simon, owned by his great friend Kahnweiler (also first owner of this painting), and thus the Galerie Louise Leiris came into being at the outbreak of the Second World War.

Richet was fascinated by the work of André Masson and collected particularly coherent works which would illustrate the artist's development as comprehensively as possible. The present painting is a fine example of Masson's early surrealist tendencies. The spontaneity of line is reminiscent of Masson's 'automatic painting' which he invented in 1923. The cockerel is suggested with a minimum of line and form, merely through the sum of it's most recognisable parts: the head, feet and tail feathers, to create a balanced and entirely readable composition.