ANDRÉ LHOTE | Gypsy's Bar

P. Stoebel, France
Sale: Christie's, South Kensington, 29th November 1993, lot 55
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Emblematic of André Lhote’s unique Cubist technique, Gypsy's Bar depicts a spontaneous vision of musicians and dancers in an atmospheric bar. His unabashed use of vivacious colours and bold play of lines provide a sense of innovation to the formality of the Cubist pictorial construct. A work bursting with energy, Lhote’s artwork stands out for his stylised yet clearly delineated representations of people in motion. Reminiscing, Lhote said: ‘It is fascinating to capture a moving spectacle by freezing it at its crucial phase, at that moment when, like a pendulum at the end of its trajectory, everything seems to become motionless for a second before starting up again in rapid flashes’ (quoted in Anatole Jakovsky, André Lhote, 48 reproductions commentées par le peintre, Paris, 1947, pp. 251-67). The figure in the foreground over whose shoulder we, the spectators, view the scene is evocative of André Lhote's painting Hommage à Watteau, painted in 1918 a study for which is in the permanent collection of TATE Britain.



This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by Dominique Bermann Martin.