Lot 120
  • 120

Ignacio Zuloaga

Estimate
150,000 - 250,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Ignacio Zuloaga
  • Mademoiselle Souty
  • signed lower right
  • oil on canvas
  • 190 by 120cm., 74¾ by 47¼in.

Provenance

Carlos Beistegui, Paris (collector Carlos Bestegui, 1863-1953, was a close acquaintance of the artist. He acquired a number of his paintings, including several depicting Mademoiselle Marcelle Souty. Zuloaga also portrayed Bestegui on at least seven occasions. Bestegui's collection of 18th and 19th Century paintings was donated to the Musée du Louvre)
Galeria Barbié, Barcelona
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 1980

 

Exhibited

Boston, The Copley Society (and travelling), Exhibition of Paintings by Ignacio Zuloaga Under the Auspices of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, 1916-1918, no. 11
Aragón, Imágenes de mujer en la plástica española del siglo XX, Instituto Aragonés de la Mujer, Zaragoza 2003, illustrated in the catalogue

Literature

The World Magazine, 11 January 1917
Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, The Life and Work of Ignacio Zuloaga, Barcelona, 1991,  p. 512, no 399, catalogued

Condition

Original canvas. Apart from some retouching, notably spots in the top left background; an area in the left hand upper arm and body of the jacket addressing old craquelure; a small spot to the right of the bow tie, and some spots in the right of the coulottes, the work is in good condition.
"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."

Catalogue Note

Painted in Paris in 1915, Marcelle Souty's coquettish pose in the present work shows off her gamin good looks to the full. Sporting a brooch bow-tie and elegantly attired in a white blouse, black jacket and raffish full length coullottes, behind her is one of Zuloaga's distinctive tapestries, a recurring studio prop that adds texture and depth to the studio sitting. With her right hand assertively on her hip and her left hand clutching a posey of flowers, Mademoiselle Souty looks at the viewer with a half-haughty, half-beguiling expression.

Zuloaga was introduced to Marcelle Souty by his friend the painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue, for whom she also modelled. Attracted to her distinctive, sophisticated elegance she became one of Zuloaga's favourite models from 1914 until the early 1920s. In his catalogue raisonné Ferrari records at least five large scale finished portraits of her, the present work plus one of her standing dressed as a torero, one reclining clothed, one sitting holding a carnation, one dressed in black, and one reclining nude (see Ferrari, nos. 386, 400 426, 427 & 476).  

Zuloaga's elegant portrayal of Mademoiselle Souty shows how far he had travelled as a painter since his arrival in the French capital in 1889. Then he had entered the atelier of Eugène Carrière to study, and he had lodged with Santiago Rusiñol and Pablo Uranga, the latter becoming his lifelong friend. Living on the Ile Saint Louis, in his memoirs Rusiñol recounted how the young Zuloaga would isolate himself to paint, locking himself into his studio to work solitarily on his own. Over time, however, the Basque developed a wide and influential group of friends and acquaintances there, including Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin; the latter he took on a tour of Madrid, Toledo and Andalusia in 1905. By now Zuloaga was married, a proud father and well settled in Montmartre, and the same year his work was singled out for considerable praise when exhibited at the Galerie Georges Petit.

Gradually a pattern developed as to where he would work and when: Paris during the winter and part of the summer, Segovia or Madrid, and Eibar in the north of Spain at different times during the rest of the year. And as the years passed too, so he sent his pictures to an increasing number of international exhibitions from Rome to Santiago in Chile.