An Important Symbolist Collection: lots 78 to 123
Marguerite Burnat-Provins
Labaurie portée; Le fier oiseau de la Princesse; La Prisonnière; Ma ville. L'homme et le Corbeau
Lot Closed
November 13, 02:38 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 EUR
We may charge or debit your saved payment method subject to the terms set out in our Conditions of Business for Buyers.
Read more.Lot Details
Description
Marguerite Burnat-Provins
Arras 1872 - 1952 Grasse
Labaurie portée
Le fier oiseau de la Princesse
La Prisonnière
Ma ville. L'homme et le Corbeau
(I and II) Watercolour and gouache over traces of pencil on board; (III) Watercolour over traces of pencil on board; (IV) Graphite on paper
(I) Signed lower right m. burnat-provins; titled, dated, located and signed on the reverse Labaurie portée / 13 Xbre 1929 / Saint Germain-en-Laye / 4 Rue Pierre Corneille / burnat-provins / N°1 d'une série de 3; (II) Signed and dated lower right m. burnat-provins / 1915; titled, located, dated and signed on the reverse Le fier oiseau de la Princesse / Villa Bellerive. Bayonne / 1915 / burnat-provins; (III) Signed lower right m. burnat-provins; titled, located, dated and signed on the reverse La Prisonnière / Clos des Pins. 22. Décembre 1933 / St Jacques de Grasse / burnat-provins; (IV) Titled, located, dated and signed on the reverse Ma Ville / L'homme et le Corbeau / Clos des Pins. St Jacques de Grasse / 4 9bre 1940 / marguerite burnat-provins
(I) 215 x 385 mm ; (II) 379 x 242 mm ; (III) 520 x 250 mm ; (IV) 392 x 591 mm
(4)
Anonymous sale, Millon-Jutheau, Paris, Nouveau Drouot, 26 October 1984, lot 35 (Ma ville. L'homme et le Corbeau);
Where acquired by Mlle J.;
Thence by descent.
Born in Arras in 1872, Marguerite Provins moved to Paris in 1891 and trained at the Académie Julian, where she followed courses led by Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. Here she met the Swiss painter Adolphe Burnat, whom she married in 1896. The couple settled in Vevey.
Form 1898 to 1907, Burnat-Provins regularly travelled to Savièse, where her friend the painter Ernest Biéler gathered around him the principal artists of the Valais and formed the ‘École de Savièse’, which advocated a return to sources, to nature and to traditions. During these years, Burnat Provins drew, painted and wrote six books including Petits Tableaux valaisans, illustrated with coloured woodcuts of her own making, which brought the artist her first success.
Burnat-Provins was versatile and was also interested in the decorative arts, producing posters, embroideries and pyrographs. She also created dining room furniture in collaboration with Biéler in 1901. In 1903, she opened a shop in Vevey, A la cruche verte.
In 1907, separated from her husband, she left Vevey with Paul de Kalbermatten. After moving to Alsace and spending two years in Egypt, they settled in Bayonne in 1912.
The artist’s life was turned upside down by an event at the beginning of the First World War: when she heard the bells ringing to announce mobilization, Marguerite Burnat-Provins had a hallucination.
Strange characters appeared to her and gave her their names. She decided to paint them. She would continue to have visions for the rest of her life and never stopped illustrating them. She grouped together, under the title Ma Ville, some three thousand figures with mysterious names. This Oiseau-Serpent, drawn in 1928, is typical of this pantheon of unearthly figures that continue to fascinate. To give herself more freedom, Burnat-Provins chose to describe her visions using drawing and watercolour, so that she could rapidly and fluently record these fleeting images. Although she herself said that she was compelled, almost against her will, to portray these puzzling figures, her talents as a draughtswoman and her expertise are apparent in her works.
You May Also Like
