Francis Picabia

The current work dates from Picabia's early years - a period marked by eager exploration and indicative of a wide range of talent. Picabia consistently defied categorisation throughout his career, at first aligning himself with an artistic movement and subsequently separating himself from its edicts. Although much of the work from his Dada and Surrealist years is well known, the current work dates from the first decade of the twentieth century when he explored the possibilities of Neo-Impressionism and the stylistic potentials of Divisionism. As William Camfield highlights: 'Picabia's image has been so dominated by his dada activities that even some friends have found it difficult to believe that he once was an impressionist. Their surprise notwithstanding, virtually every artist who contributed to ''modern'' art during the first decade of the twentieth century passed through an impressionist or neo-impressionist phase early in his career; Picabia is exceptional only in the fact that for him Impressionism was not merely a passing phase but a major period' (W. Camfield, Francis Picabia: his Art, Life and Times, New York, 1979, p. 8).

In the present work, Picabia focused on the banks of the river Loing. The landscape along the Loing river served as subject for many of the masters of Impressionist art, particularly Sisley. Although Picabia employs a Divisionist technique in his depiction of these banks, he uses a freer hand than the specific requirements of the style might dictate. The result is an exceptional example of Picabia's ability to master the elements of a style while maintaining a freedom of expression in his work.