Lot 225
  • 225

KEES VAN DONGEN | Polo à Alexandria

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Kees van Dongen
  • Polo à Alexandria
  • Signed van Dongen (lower right); titled (on the stretcher)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 14 3/4 by 21 1/2 in.
  • 37.7 by 54.8 cm

Provenance

Collection of the artist, Monte Carlo (by 1962)
Sale: Drouot Richelieu, Paris, June 4, 1999, lot 83
Private Collection, Amsterdam (acquired at the above sale and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 8, 2006, lot 472)
Acquired at the above sale

Condition

The canvas is not lined. Under UV light: no inpainting is apparent. Apart from some light surface dirt, this work is in good original 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.
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.

Catalogue Note

Van Dongen established himself as a mainstay of the aristocratic beau-monde, with a reputation for enjoying night life, cabarets and the leisure activities of the wealthy. He visited Italy, Spain, Morocco and the South of France, where he fully immersed himself in the favorite pastimes of the upper class. As one journalist quipped, “In van Dongen's work we find everything that lives, sparkles and is luxurious" (quoted in All Eyes on van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2010-11, p. 155). Van Dongen's affinity for brilliant color and swift movement were ideally suited to polo and the races. Taking on a sporting subject favored by nineteenth-century painters, van Dongen presents his Fauve palette at its richest in the present work, combining burnished yellows, pale greens and pinks. The present work appears in the 1962 film Kees Van Dongen et la France, an interview with the artist that includes close ups of many of his paintings (see https://www.ina.fr/video/I18030945/kees-van-dongen-et-la-france-video.html). 



This work will be included in the forthcoming van Dongen Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.