Lot 278 D

Edward Cucuel had already begun attending the School of Design in his native city of San Francisco at the age of 14; he subsequently gathered his first experiences as a newspaper illustrator in New York - an occupation which he would repeatedly engage in over the course of his life. In 1892 this son of English and French parents went to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian and the Académie des Beaux-Arts until 1896. It was the art of the Impressionists, the exploration of light and colour, that would prove to be so formative for his work. Cucuel travelled extensively: he first returned to New York before occupying himself with Old Master works back in France and also in Italy. Additional excursions led him all the way to Asia by way of North Africa. In 1905 the artist finally settled in Germany: initially in Berlin and then, from 1907, in Munich. Cucuel became a member of the Munich artists association “Scholle”, where he also met Leo Putz. His plein-air painting and portraits of women would have a lasting influence on Cucuel's work.
The present portrait of a lady was presumably created around 1920 in Edward Cucuel's house next to Lake Starnberg. It impressively displays his skilled handling of the paint which, for him, represents a physical material and simultaneously a vehicle of light's expression. With a pastose brushstroke he captures his sitter in a dress that has an almost sculptural opulence: only the theatricality of its wearer seems to surpass its dramatic character. It is through this entirely excessive expression that Cucuel is able to undermine both the apparent frivolity of the motif and the viewers' expectations.