OLIVIER DEBRÉ | Personnage debout

Knoedler Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Please refer to the Contemporary Department for a professional condition report. Email: michael.bouhanna@sothebys.com
"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."

Un après-midi, j’ai visité la collection Wallace en compagnie du peintre à Londres. Alors que nous partions, Olivier Debré a pris sa boîte à peintures et ses plus récentes toiles déposées à l’entrée. Dehors, sur la place, il m’a montré ses études. « J’ai fait ça ce matin, à Hyde Park » me dit-il. « Il y avait des femmes qui se promenaient et l’une d’entre elles, celle-ci, portait une robe rouge. » Tout ce qu’il restait de la robe rouge était une couleur et un plan sur une toile bleue-grise. Mais Debré s’était inspiré du monde visible autour de lui. N’est-ce pas l’équivalent de ce que faisait Delacroix quand il appelait la nature son « dictionnaire » ? Dans l’art actuel, les images captées du monde réel sont des points de départ. La réalité n’est plus reconnaissable, seulement suggérée. Le peintre ne peut continuer à reproduire les contours, les couleurs et les rythmes qu’il garde en mémoire sans s’appauvrir. Il doit s’enrichir, les renouveler par le contact de la vie. Sur le plan de la libre transposition, Debré me semble être allé plus loin que ses prédécesseurs. (…)

Comme un musicien qui ferait ses gammes, Olivier Debré dessine tous les jours. Il fait des « exercices de main » comme il les appelle. Ses lignes tremblent, courent et s’arrêtent net en faisant une éclaboussure. Mais ce ne sont plus des tâches de Rorschach aléatoires. (…) Avec et par la ligne, Debré cherche des rythmes qui s’accordent et s’opposent, des associations et des ruptures.

One afternoon In London the painter and I had visited the Wallace Collection. As we left, Olivier Debré took his paint box and the newly painted canvases that he had checked at the door. Outside in the square he showed me his studies. “I did this this morning, at Hyde Park” he told me. “There were women walking, one of them, this one, had on a red dress.” All that was left of the red dress was a color and a plane on the green-blue canvas. But Debré had taken his inspiration from the visible world around him. Surely this is the equivalent of what Delacroix used to do, when he called Nature his “dictionary”? In the art of today, images drawn from nature have become springboards. Reality is no longer recognizable, but suggested. The painter cannot go on repeating contours, colors and rythms that he retains in his memory without becoming impoverished. He needs to enrichen these, to renew them by contact with life. In this domain of faraway transposition, Debré seems to me to have gone further than his predecessors.

(…)

Like a musician doing his scales, Olivier Debré draws every day. He does what he calls “hand exercises”. His line trembles, races, stops suddenly as it splashes a spot. But this is no longer a Rorschach school spot, depending upon chance. (…) With line and by line, Debré seeks for matching and opposing rythms, associations and ruptures.

Pierre Courthion



This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity delivered by Sylvie Debré-Huerre.