FRANÇOISE GILOT | Still Life on a Chair

Private collection, United States (acquired directly from the artist)

Executed on cream wove, not laid down and hinged to the mount at two points along the upper edge. The sheet is slightly undulating. Edges are deckled with associated scuffs, nicks and minor paint losses. Examination under UV light reveals a spot of fluorescence to the white and light blue pigment in the lower left quadrant, which does not appear to be related to any retouching. There are a few small dots of paint loss in places. The sheet is slightly light stained. This work is in overall very good condition.
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Françoise Gilot met Pablo Picasso in 1944 and visited his studio often in 1945 before moving in with him the year after.  She also became involved with other artists – among them Nicolas de Stael, Sonia Delaunay and Brancusi – in a new movement in Paris known as  Réalités Nouvelles, the members dedicated to the idea of “pure painting”. Gilot was also continuing her studies with Jean Souverbie at the School of Fine Arts and at the Académie de la Section d’Or.  Still Life on a Chair from 1945 is one of Gilot’s earliest extant works executed solely in the medium of gouache.  It heralds a shift towards works on paper which she would focus on for the next three years, developing abstracted compositions often by incising pencil directly into the wet gouache. 



The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Françoise Gilot and it is registered in the artist’s archives.