André Lhote

Sale: Ferri Scp., Paris, June 4, 1999, lot 30
James Francis Trezza, New York
Soufer Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above in 2005

Oil on paper mounted on canvas. There are various minor scuffs and creases within the composition that are largely inherent given its scale. There are also some larger tears to the sheet that are visible in raking light, most notably within the left and upper left quadrant, where the largest example extends approximately three feet diagonally along the work. There are various studio stains scattered along the surface of the image as well as a couple areas of minor scattered pigment loss, including along the right arm of the right-most figure and within the center chest of the figure second from left. Under UV light: an uneven layer of varnish is present and inpainting is apparent in several places, mostly corresponding to tears in the sheet. These areas, beginning at the left of the composition, include: small spots of inpainting at the top left and toward bottom left corners, as well as three horizontal tears along the left edge, the bottom and largest of which extends approximately twelve inches within the bottom left quadrant. Inpainting then corresponds with the aforementioned three foot repair, including a larger area of inpainting running vertically between the figures at extreme left and second from left. There are a couple smaller tears running vertically from bottom center of the composition as well as a four inch repaired tear at the upper most right hand corner. There are a few relatively very minor strokes of inpainting scattered throughout the composition and some original pigments fluoresce. The work is otherwise fine and in generally good condition in light of both size and medium.
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.

Lhote’s formal identification with Cubism began in 1911 with his participation in the Salon d’automne along with other innovative young artists such as Robert Delaunay, Jean Metzinger and Fernand Léger, and it was cemented in 1919 with his inclusion in the Salon de la Section d’or. Painted in 1935, Les Baigneuses à Thonon beautifully demonstrates Lhote’s desire to clearly underscore the academic underpinnings from which modern artists were iconoclastically deviating. The monumental size and subject matter of the present work references the Academic tradition of large-scale genre paintings, while the formal Cubist devices make it a thoroughly modern twentieth-century painting—qualities shared by Lhote's most successful canvases (see fig. 1). In contrast to the more traditionally Cubist pieces created by his contemporaries, Lhote’s work standout for his stylized yet clearly delineated representations of people in motion. “It is fascinating to capture a moving spectacle by freezing it at its crucial phase,” Lhote reminisced,” “at that moment when, like a pendulum at the end of its trajectory, everything seems to become motionless for a second before starting up again in rapid flashes” (quoted in Anatole Jakovsky, André Lhote, 48 reproductions commentées par le peintre, Paris, 1947, pp. 251-67).

Emblematic of this individual technique, Les Baigneuses à Thonon conveys Lhote’s unique pictorial style of Cubism, a triumphant, spontaneous vision that incorporates his unabashed use of vivacious colors with Cubist ideas of form—the precise, unmodulated color within his palette, albeit softened, is painted with a superb sensitivity while the bold play of lines and superimpositions, a complex system of interacting planes and geometricised figurative elements, provide an inventiveness to the formal construct. Bursting with energy, this work conveys a theme repeated throughout centuries of art, but here Lhote reworks Cubist codes to create a lively quality uniquely his own.



This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by Dominique Bermann Martin.