Kees van Dongen

Private Collection (acquired from the artist in Paris circa 1912; sale: Sotheby's, London, 7th December 1998, lot 329)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Good condition. Original canvas. There is a layer of varnish on the surface. Surface is slightly dirty. Canvas is buckling slightly in extreme lower left corner. Under UV light, several strokes of inpainting near lower left corner and 1 stroke at center of left edge; 1 stroke above figure's left foot to address loss; 2 strokes in and above figure's left calf; 1 inch-long stroke in bottom of left thigh. One 1 ½ inch long stroke in background 3 inches below top edge, just left of center. One inch-long stroke 2 inches above bottom ledge left of center. A few other scattered minor pinhead-size spots of inpainting. Paint separation in extreme upper right corner with associated inpainting. Otherwise, fine.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Having exhibited at the 1905 Salon d'Automne, where the term "Les Fauves" was coined, van Dongen became a key protagonist of the Fauve movement, and was its only non-French member. Van Dongen's works exhibited at the Salon were perceived as being just as scandalous and daring as those of the other members of the group, not only for their 'wild' use of colour, but also for their audacious and erotically-charged subjects. It was in 1906 that van Dongen moved to the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, where his studio was opposite that occupied by Picasso and his companion Fernande Olivier, a subject of a number of his portraits. Finding himself at the centre of the Parisian avant-garde, during this period van Dongen executed works that are now considered the most accomplished and groundbreaking of his career.

Painted towards the end of the Fauve period, Femme nue allongée is one of van Dongen's striking portraits depicting most likely a prostitute or perhaps a recumbent dancer. In 1913, van Dongen motivated his penchant for painting marginalised women by saying that his social concern for their plight stirred his compassion, '"I know every one of those women's histories, which are deeply tragic.  They have experienced life in all its facets...  I cannot help painting these women in garish colours; perhaps I do so in order to express the intensity of their lives" Although the women in early drawings and illustrations... may certainly be seen as a form of protest at social injustice, after 1906 the theme came more and more to express his libertine eroticism...' (Jan van Adrichem, Van Dongen,  Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1967). 

As Jan van Adrichem observed:  'The moral content of his work shocked the Parisians at the time and because of his northern background, to which the emotionality and vivid contrasts, the use of unmixed colours and thickly applied paint of his painting was ascribed, his independent stance, as well as his place in the Fauvist movement was doubted. But in 1971, Jean Mélas Kyriazi claimed van Dongen without further ado for Fauvism... Kyriazi called him the Fauvist of the nude and sensuality' (Van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1967, pp. 7-9).

Gaston Diehl discussed van Dongen's early portraits in the context of the Fauve movement:  'In his portraits, his nudes... he held fast to a meticulous craftsmanship, so meticulous it could almost be called naïve... The vitality of his need for immediate pleasures took even more concrete form through his development, during these years of 1906 to 1909, of two major themes. One, with which he was already quite familiar, is girls of the street. He treats them without complacency, but - a point on which there is unanimous agreement - he knew how to make a troubling femininity radiate from this flabby and too-used flesh. Enveloped by a powerful corona, the bodies of Anita the Bohemian or of Nini, the habitué of the Folies Bergère, which offer themselves shamelessly, exalt the most sensual luxuries' (Gaston Diehl, Van Dongen, Milan, n.d., pp. 41 & 49).

In rendering this subject, the artist sought to recreate his own interpretation of it, expressing the essence of female sexuality.  For his part, faithful to his principal source of inspiration, the feminine nude, van Dongen openly asserted his position in the witty prologue he composed for his December [1911] show:  '"A certain immodesty is truly a virtue, as is the absence of respect for many respectable things"'. [...] These enticing nudes, who have no adornment but a flower, a knot of ribbons, or a hat, permitted the critics to baptise our painter 'the psychologist of the body', and permitted René Jean to congratulate him for "seeing woman as a superb animal whose smiles and gestures are gracious, supple, feline, and evocative"' (Diehl, ibid, p. 52).