Kees van Dongen

Samy Chalom, Paris

Waddington Galleries, London

Mary & George Bloch

Waddington Galleries, London (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above in March 2000

Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne & Rotterdam, Boymans-van Beuningen, Van Dongen, 1967-68, no. 81

Hong Kong Museum of Art, Modern Art from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, 1987, no. 11, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, The Cities Collect, 2000-01, no. 216

Good condition. Original canvas. The surface is bright and clean. Under UV light, there is scattered retouching throughout the white shawl and a few specks of retouching in the mustard blouse to the left of the necklace. There is also retouching around the periphery to address frame abrasion. The retouching has been expertly done and is not visible in natural light. There are also a few tiny, pinpointed losses to the pigment in the more heavily painted areas, particularly the dab of red impasto at the bottom and in some of the thicker areas of white paint.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Although he made a career for himself depicting the women of the demi and beau mondes, it is this enchanting depiction of a modest North African woman that exemplifies Van Dongen's reputation as the most successful portrait painter among the Fauves.   The captivating Fatma is the subject of Van Dongen's portrait here, posed conservatively with her hair and shoulders covered in what may have been a hijab.  Van Dongen was not alone in his fascination with 'orientalism,' which had been a popular theme among French artists dating back to the mid-nineteenth century.   Matisse had also made trips to the coastal cities of North Africa around this time, forming his first impressions for the many odalisques that he would later paint after the war.  But it was Van Dongen who reacted immediately to the pungent exoticism of Egypt and Morocco and the warmth, curiosity and sincerity of the people whom he encountered.

Van Dongen painted Fatma at the height of his career, following a string of highly-successful exhibitions at the Kahnweiler, Thannhauser and Bernheim-Jeune galleries in Paris between 1908 and 1910.  Before that, he had established his reputation while exhibiting with the Fauves in 1905 and 1907, and the wildly expressive style that he codified with those artists essentially took hold in his painting for the rest of his career.  For example, the red ornament on the bodice of the figure in this picture exemplifies the stylistic objectives of the movement. "Fauvism," Matisse once joked, "is when there's red in it" (quoted in J. Klein, "Van Dongen, Postmodern Fauve," in Van Dongen, 2008-09, op. cit., p. 221).