Nicolas de Stael, 1914-1955

Private Collection, Montevideo;
Private Collection, Zurich

Montevideo, Exposición de Oleos y Dibujos de Nicolas de Staël, 1948, Cat. No. 61

Painted in 1947, Nicholas de Staël’s Untitled dates from the height of his abstract phase, which lasted from 1946-1955 and is considered to be the most active and significant period of his artistic career. Untitled displays all the elements characteristic for this period: block-like slabs of colour emerge as if struggling against one another across the surface of the canvas amid tangles of broken lines. Aggressively dark vertical and diagonal lines in brown and grey, seem to go deliberately against the underlying composition, and dominate the canvas creating a dense grid.

Nicholas de Staël was born in Russia but his family soon went into exile in the wake of the October Revolution. Following the death of his parents, he was taken in by close friends in Brussels. With their support he studied traditional Flemish art in Brussels at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts and the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Saint-Gilles-les-Bruxelles. However he began to move further towards abstraction, adopting a highly distinctive and abstract style, similar to the American Abstract Expressionist Movement, but which developed independently of it.

De Staël explains the catalyst for this change: little by little I felt constrained against painting an object in its own likeness, because, in front of an object, a single object, I was overwhelmed by the infinite multitude of other objects existing with it. It is not possible to think about an object absolutely as it is; there are so many objects there as well that the possibility of expressing that one object in plastic form vanishes. So I have sought to achieve a free form of expression.

With its very dark earthy colours, Untitled is typical for de Staël’s work from 1945 onwards. The post-war years marked a period of great difficulty. There was a significant decline in the sales of his paintings: de Staël suffered financial hardship and was frequently forced to move studios. Also the death of his long term partner Jeannine Gillou in 1946 left de Staël devastated and he entered a state of severe depression.

However in August 1947 de Staël befriended the Russian artist Andrei Lanskoy, whom he referred to as his teacher. Although Lanskoy was also working in an abstract style at the time, his works were characterised by brighter colours, movement and energy that were of great interest to de Staël. He was also influenced by the art of Georges Braque and also Charles Lapique, famous for his exploration of colour and spatial construction. The offered lot shows de Staël’s progression to a more vibrant palette that he began to use in order to create a more pronounced sense of depth. Untitled marks the revitalisation of his life and work after a long period of depression and struggle.