Maurice de Vlaminck - Nature Morte au pain - image-1

Lot 212 D

Maurice de Vlaminck - Nature Morte au pain

Auction 1051 - overview Cologne
29.05.2015, 18:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 35.000 € - 45.000 €
Result: 40.920 € (incl. premium)

Maurice de Vlaminck

Nature Morte au pain
Circa 1941/1942

Oil on canvas 53.4 x 72.9 cm Framed. Signed 'Vlaminck' in black lower left. - With the address stamp of the artist Arno Breker to the back of the canvas and twice to the stretcher. - With occasional, professional retouches along the outer margins.

The present still life is painted in powerful, pastose brushstrokes and displays a balanced and clearly structured composition. It is interesting how the artist suggests depth through the placement of the knife towards the vanishing point in the distance and the mysterious grey background, the pale horizon and leaden colour of which are reminiscent of Vlaminck's characteristic skies. The depiction of light and shadow in the work illustrates space and form; these primarily derive from colouristic and compositional considerations. The shadows and the vivid highlights of the bread lend the work a suggestive quality.
In Paris, Vlaminck had an exclusive contract with the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler since 1907. It was presumably through him that he met the gallerist Alfred Flechtheim, who was resident in Düsseldorf and Berlin. Flechtheim in turn probably instigated contact between Vlaminck and the artist Arno Breker. Like so many other artists of this generation, Breker - from whose estate the present work originates - had moved to Paris in 1927. Alfred Flechtheim secured a contract with Breker and supplied him with portrait commissions and his first sales to German museums throughout the late 1920s. Breker modelled Maurice de Vlaminck in 1943 and had the bust cast in bronze.

Certificate

With an expertise from Maïthe Vallès-Bled, Wildenstein Institute, Paris, dated 19 March 2015. The painting is registered under the reference no. 6559, and will be included in the catalogue raisonné of paintings.

Provenance

Estate Arno Breker, acquired from the artist in the early 1950s; since then in family possession