ALISON WATT | Madame Rivière - Fragment V

Acquired directly from the Artist by the present owner

Edinburgh, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Alison Watt, Fold, New Paintings 1996-7, 4th October - 15th November 1997, cat. nos.17 and 18, illustrated pp.50-1.

Both canvases are original. There are a few tiny instances of loss to the upper left corner of the right hand panel, most probably due to the work being unframed. There is some slight undulation in the extreme lower left corner of Fragment V. Some of the thicker areas of impasto are possibly slightly flattened in places. There is a small push in the lower left quadrant in Mme Riviere. There is light surface dirt and studio matter to the surface of both works. This excepting both canvases appear to be in very good overall condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals a small number of scattered areas of fluorescence and retouching. There is a small group of sensitively executed instances of retouching running vertically through the centre of the right hand panel. There are also some very minor spots of fluorescence around the extreme edges of both canvases, in keeping with minor flecks of loss. There are some further instances of fluorescence around the edges, predominantly in the left hand panel, and in a small number of places through the centre of both canvases entirely in keeping with the Artist's materials and working methods. The works are unframed. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any further questions regarding the present lot.
"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."

We are grateful to the Artist for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work. Madame Rivière - Fragment V is part of a series of diptychs Alison Watt painted between 1996-7 that draw on the society portraits and erotic nudes of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Ingres’ work, and in particular his depiction of opulent fabrics, has long been a source of inspiration for Watt, who recalled being particularly struck by his Madame Moitessier (1856) on a visit to the National Gallery, London, as a child. The portrait, dazzlingly adorned in sumptuous garb, continued to captivate her and this documented fascination was a factor in her being invited to become the National Gallery Associate Artist in 2006. As she recalled: ‘Whenever I look at Madame Moitessier I find myself being drawn away from her face, which is looking at me. My eye always drops to the fabric of the dress and I find myself becoming lost in that area of the painting. The longer you look at it, the stranger it becomes because your eye begins to play tricks on you. The fabric moves in and out of focus, certain areas loom forward, others recede…’ (Alison Watt, quoted in Alison Watt: Phantom, The National Gallery Company, London, 2008, p.13).

In the present work, Watt reimagines Ingres’ Portrait of Marie-Françoise Rivière of 1805 (Louvre), adopting the sensuous pose which emphasises the figure’s feminine curves, while eliminating extraneous detail, cropping in severely on the form which is now nude. Watt’s exclusion of the head of the figure, and the extrication of the sumptuous textile to its own canvas, turns the work from a portrait to a study of flesh and materials, and draws a purposeful metaphor between cloth and skin. The fabric itself is magnified, becoming a series of curves and folds, which echo the wrinkles and creases of the body. The colour palette across the diptych is unified and subdued, with the chalky, pinks and tans relating the flesh and fabric, the blue of the figure’s veins echoing the tone of the central folds. Watt’s ability to draw out the sensuousness of the materials has become a defining feature of her oeuvre. As she stated in 2004: ‘I came to realise that the paintings of fabric were more sensual than the paintings of the body.’ (Alison Watt, quoted in Alison Watt, exh. cat., Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, 2004, unpaginated).  

Included in her seminal exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, in 1997, the present work is crucial in demonstrating the interplay between figuration and abstraction, which plays a pivotal roll in so many of Watt’s most accomplished paintings. The highly figurative nude references her earlier more representational style, such as her seminal portrait of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1989), whilst the abstracted counters of the softly folding fabrics are prophetic of her more recent work, including her 2000 exhibition Shift at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, which featured twelve large- scale paintings, taking materials as their sole subject matter.