Lot 32 : Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)

Kees van Dongen - 1877-1968

Auction Location: United States of America - 2006
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Artist or Maker:

Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)

Title:

La Gitane Joaquina-Tête de femme

Description:

La Gitane Joaquina-Tête de femme
signed 'van Dongen' (lower left); signed again and inscribed 'van Dongen 6 rue Saulnier Paris' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
39 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. (101 x 81.9 cm.)

Provenance:

Mr. Samuel Lustgarten, Chicago.
Roland Browse & Delbanco, London (acquired in 1958).
Eric Estorick, London (acquired from the above, 1958).
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Exhibited:

New York, Marie Harriman Gallery, Les Fauves, October-November 1941.

Notes:

To be included in the forthcoming Kees van Dongen catalogue raisonné being prepared by Jacques Chalom Des Cordes under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.

Van Dongen's early works displayed the influence of the Impressionists; however, in 1904 the artist made his debut in the Paris salons, exhibiting a painting style full of raw emotionality and taking on the ideals and principles which he would subsequently share with the radical Fauve painters. "Disregarding realism, they used color simply with an eye to the picture surface, with only the effect in mind. The stronger the color, the greater its effect, which led them logically to the ultimate step of using color straight from the tube" (J.-P. Crespelle, The Fauves, Greenwich, 1962, p. 30). Van Dongen was highly influenced by Fauve portraits such as Matisse's Femme au chapeau, a pivotal work in the movement and one which had scandalized Parisian critics at the 1905 Salon d'Automne.

Van Dongen was immediately taken with Paris when he arrived there in 1899 from his native town of Delfshaven in Holland. By 1906, the artist had moved to the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, and spent much of his early career among the bistros and bals musettes in search of models for his paintings. Motivated by a bohemian lifestyle and anarchist ideas in resistance to the bourgeoisie, in the following years van Dongen created vivid portraits in which he sought to reveal the raw, inward truths of human personality and desire.

In the present work, van Dongen has focused his attention on a woman whose identity remains a mystery but who is presumably a member of the bourgeoisie. The artist was less concerned with the exact anatomical representation of the female form, preferring instead to focus on the essence of the figure. Van Dongen chose to represent his Fauvist ideals mainly through portraiture. The extreme stylization of forms, his preference for bright, rich colors and the avoidance of half-tones and realistic shadows signal characteristics of the artist's method throughout his career.