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Provenance: M. Delhomme, Paris
Alex Maguy, Paris
Anon. sale, Sotheby's New York, 11 Feb 1987, lot 79
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 7 Feb 2006, lot 286

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Literature: J. Kessel & J. Kisling, Kisling 1891-1953, Vol.I, Turin, 1971, no.6 (illustrated p.316).

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Notes: No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Considered one of the chief animators of the 'années folles', Moise Kisling was famous in Montparnasse even before his work was well known. He became close friends with many of his contemporaries, particularly his fellow Jewish expatriates Chagall, Soutine and Modigliani - who rented a studio in the same building and who painted him in 1916. His landscape stylisation is comparable to that of Chagall, but, being a master at depicting the female body, his surreal nudes and portraits earned him the widest acclaim.

Returning to Paris after WWI - his service in the Foreign Legion earned him French citizenship - he began consolidating the various influences on his work into the personal style we see emerging in this painting. Marked by elegant draughtsmanship and delicately modulated colours, his work from the early post war years shows an expressionist tendency at times with rather ponderous, distorted forms and a feeling of pathos.

"A beautiful girl in the nude distils joy in me, the desire to love, to be happy and I would wish that the piece of cloth; the backdrop on which she poses, be an expression of my delight."