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Property of an Important Private Collector
Lot Closed
February 20, 02:03 PM GMT
Estimate
26,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property of an Important Private Collector
LUCIEN LEVY-DHURMER
1865-1953
SEPTIEME SYMPHONIE
titled in French and signed S.e le 7eme / LLevy Dhurmer lower right
pastel on paper laid on board
paper: 65 by 48.5cm., 25½ by 19in.
framed: 90 by 74.5cm., 35½ by 29in.
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Stair Sainty Gallery, London (label on the back)
Sale: Christie's, Paris, 20 June 2007, lot 138
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer was continuously inspired by music and tried to emulate through pastels and painting the emotion rendered by auditory notes and harmonies created by composers such as Beethoven, Debussy, and Gabriel Faure. As in The Moonlight Sonata and The Appassionnata, the title of the present work Septieme Symphonie underlines this connection by adopting its name directly from the symphony of Beethoven. However, the work mirrors Beethoven’s music in more ways than simply titular. Wagner, upon hearing Beethoven’s symphony, described it as ‘melody and harmony uniting around the sturdy bones of Rhythm to firm and fleshy human shapes.’ (Richard Wagner, The Art-Work of the Future, vol. 1, 1895, pp. 69-213) This bodily metaphor is apt, and parallels can be drawn between the rolling tempo of the symphony and the energy behind the frenzied strokes of the pastel.
In this work, a female figure dances to soundless music with her arms raised to hide her face and interlocking fingers. Her form is surrounded by bursts of yellow and orange light which illuminate her figure and enhance her movement. The gentle contours of her form and her tangled hair, heightened by the texture of the cross-hatched pastel and vibrancy of colour, add to the ephemeral aura of the composition and imbue it with symbolic aesthetic.