Nicolas de Stael

Galerie Louis Carré, Paris
Genia and Charles Zadok Collection, Chicago

Arts Club of Chicago, The School of Paris: A Selection of Modern Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zadok, May - June 1952, cat. no. 11 (listed as Craie Flowers)
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Nicholas de Staël, 1964, cat. no. 15
Detroit Institute of Arts, June 1965, cat. no. 55

Jacques Dubourg & François de Staël, Nicolas de Staël, Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures, Paris, 1968, cat. no. 113, p. 89, illustrated
François de Staël, Nicolas de Staël, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint, Neuchâtel, 1997, cat. no. 127, p. 235, illustrated

The most active and significant period of Nicolas de Staël's artistic career extends nine years from 1946 to his early death in 1955.  During this period, de Staël's paintings are characterized by violent movement and heavily accented contrasting rhythms; forms which were inspired by everyday objects such as hammers, pincers, or tree-roots were built up with heavy slabs of thick and rich impasto.  The titles of a small group of paintings called Composition will suffice to indicate the nature of the artist's pictorial conceptions.  Fleur à craie is one of these rare paintings with such a title.  The colors from this period are on the whole dark, predominantly browns and grays, but in the present work there are passages of fiery red, orange and yellow; the painting glows with energy from within.  In Fleur à craie we see de Staël's extraordinary feeling for the organic posibilties of the medium, skillfully and harmoniously striking "le ton just."  Furthermore, the painting is witness to de Staël's capacity for keeping faith with his own vision and remaining unaffected by the many conflicting artistic tendencies with which he was surrounded.  Nothing in this painting was done without careful deliberation or intent.  It is about the depths of personal experience and violent emotional conflicts, characteristics from which Fleur à craie emerged.