Catalogue: Important Russian Art Auction
15 October 2020
*§ 51. KISLING, MOISE (1891–1953)
Flowers, signed.
Oil on canvas, 84 by 74.5 cm.
70,000–100,000 GBP
Executed in 1938.
Provenance: Collection of James Vigevano, Los Angeles.
Collection of Mrs Helena Fox, Toronto.
Collection of Joseph and Lieve Guttmann, Los Angeles.
Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the expert Jean Kisling.
Literature: J. Dutourd, J. Kisling (ed.), Kisling Catalogue Raisonné, vol. III, Paris, Arcos-Verlag, 1995, no. XVI, p. 197, illustrated.
Still Life with Wildflowers by Moïse Kisling, a prominent artist of the Paris School, is one of those compositions that have always been popular with the public and brought him fame during his lifetime. The deliberate simplicity of the bunch of flowers, the ceramic jug and the wooden stand is compensated for here and there by the ornamental vividness of precisely delineated brushstrokes of colour that hardly ever shade off into one another and by the very atmosphere of “metaphysical painting” that typifies most of Kisling’s still lifes from the 1930s.
The artist’s contemporaries recall that he loved wildflowers and in his studio at Sanary-sur-Mer overlooking the Bay of Bandol, where Kisling worked from 1932 onwards, there was always a jugful of seasonal flowers that he or his wife had gathered personally while walking around the area.
The present lot as illustrated in the 1995 Catalogue Raisonné written by Jean Dutourd and edited by Jean Kisling, Tome III, numéro XVI, reproduced in colour on p. 197.
Notes on symbols:
* Indicates 5% Import Duty Charge applies.
Ω Indicates 20% Import Duty Charge applies.
§ Indicates Artist's Resale Right applies.
† Indicates Standard VAT scheme applies, and the rate of 20% VAT will be charged on both hammer price and premium.