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PROPERTY FROM THE JACOBS FAMILY TRUST, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Lot 40
HENRI LE FAUCONNIER(1881-1946)Village au bord d'un lac
17 November 2020, 17:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$47,812.50 inc. premium
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HENRI LE FAUCONNIER (1881-1946)
Village au bord d'un lac
signed 'Le Fauconnier' (lower right)
oil on canvas
28 7/8 x 36 3/8 in (73.3 x 92.4 cm)
Painted circa 1911
signed 'Le Fauconnier' (lower right)
oil on canvas
28 7/8 x 36 3/8 in (73.3 x 92.4 cm)
Painted circa 1911
Footnotes
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Renée Smithuis.
Provenance
Willem Wolff Beffie, Amsterdam.
Ruth Jacobs, Toledo (acquired from the above).
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Exhibited
Amsterdam, Museé Municipal Suasso, Moderne Kunst Kring (Cercle de l'art moderne), October 6 - November 7, 1912, no. 58.
A leading French Cubist painter, Henri Le Fauconnier opened his Rue Visconti studio in Paris in 1910. Encouraging artists to implement new Cubist techniques characterized by planes of color and simplified forms, Le Fauconnier was strongly influenced by the teachings of Paul Cézanne. In 1911, alongside like-minded artists Jean Metzinger, Fernand Léger, Albert Gleizes and Robert Delaunay, Le Fauconnier exhibited his Cubist paintings in the notorious Salle 41 of the Salon des Indépendants. Known as the 'Cubist Scandal' the exhibition caused an uproar, but also played an important role in the promotion of Cubism as a method and movement on an international level.
Painted the same year, the present work is a dynamic depiction of the village of Annecy, a town in southeastern France that overlooks Lake Annecy, and a place the artist frequented from 1910 to 1912. The mountainous landscape is simplified into geometric and interlocking shapes, the forms of which are defined through thick, dark outlines. The volumetric relationship is enhanced by the subtle variations in shading of muted oranges, browns, blues and greens.
An exceptional example of the artist's unique proto-Cubist style, Village au bord d'un lac comes from the world-class art collection of William Wolff Beffie. Born in Amsterdam, Beffie made his fortune in the diamond business. From 1912 to 1918, the Dutch art collector amassed a significant collection of German and Russian expressionist art, including works by Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Leo Gastel and Jan Sluijters. Many paintings from his collection enrich museums worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and New York's Museum of Modern Art.