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Artist or Maker: MOÏSE KISLING 1891 - 1953

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Date: Painted in 1952.

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Description: L'ARLÉSIENNE
signed Kisling and dated 1952 (lower right)

Estimated Price: $_________

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Medium: oil on canvas

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Dimensions: 39 3/4 by 28 3/4 in. 101 by 73 cm.

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Provenance: Acquired by the present owners as a gift from the artist's son, 1977

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Exhibited: Tokyo, Grande Galerie Odakyu; Osaka, Galerie d'Art Daimaru; Kobe, Galerie d'Art Daimaru, Kisling Retrospective, 1984, catalogue no. 80
Marseille, la Salle Trigance, Les jolis paysans peints - Les campagnes provençales sous le regard des peintres, de Constantin à Chabaud, 1990, p. 79
Paris, Galerie Daniel Malingue, Kisling Retrospective, 1991, catalogue no. 61
Toyko, Mitsukoshi Museum (travelled to Kawagushiko, Osaka, Hiroshima, Jukuoka), Kisling Retrospective, 1992, p. 111, no. 76
Kraków, National Museum, Kisling and his Friends, 1996, p. 62, no. 36
Ibaraki, Japan, Museum of Modern Art, Kisling, 2007, p. 157, no. 61
Lodève, Musée Fleury, Kisling, 2008, pp. 192-193, no. 65

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Published: Jean Kisling, Kisling, Volume I, Paris, 1971, p. 137, no. XXXVIII
Héliane Bernard, La terre toujours réinventée, University of Lyon Press, 1990, plate VI b.

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Notes:

First exposed to French Art while a student in Krakow, Moïse Kisling moved to Paris in 1910, at the age of nineteen. Throughout the rest of his career, he would be influenced by the leading practitioners of various Post-Impressionist and Modern styles. Rewarded for his service in WWI with French citizenship, Kisling would continue to live and work in France for the rest of his life, aside from the period of German occupation when he lived in the United States. After his return to France in 1946, Kisling divided his time between Paris and his villa at Sarany, a village in Provence not far from Arles.



This striking portrait dates from 1952, just before the artist's death. It features Kisling's distinctive style with bold colors and confident draughtsmanship, a style which had developed through his early years in Paris and in which he worked from the 1920's onward. While an excellent example of his personal artistic style, the picture also displays Kisling's attachment to his adopted country. Known as L'Arlésienne, the sitter wears distinctive Provençal costume: an elaborate, decorative headdress, lace blouse, and long skirt. For years French artists like Van Gogh and Gauguin had been enthralled by the costumes and physical beauty of the women of Arles. Kisling too was captivated by this subject. In 1952, he painted at least one other portrait of an Arlesienne. In this full length portrait, the modest and refined sitter becomes the embodiment of timeless beauty and elegance.