This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 68*,AR
ANDRÉ DERAIN(1880-1954)Barques à marée basse
12 – 13 October 2022, 16:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £20,400 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Impressionist and Modern Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
ANDRÉ DERAIN (1880-1954)
Barques à marée basse
signed 'a derain' (lower right)
oil on canvas laid down on panel
15.8 x 15.9cm (6 1/4 x 6 1/4in).
Painted circa 1934
signed 'a derain' (lower right)
oil on canvas laid down on panel
15.8 x 15.9cm (6 1/4 x 6 1/4in).
Painted circa 1934
Footnotes
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité André Derain.
Provenance
Contessa Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt Collection, France and Italy.
Thence by descent to the previous owner.
Private collection, Rome (acquired from the above).
Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt (1885-1971), better known as 'Mimi', was a distinguished art collector in Italy. She was born into a noble and cultivated family from Perugia, and was the goddaughter of Pope Leo XIII (Gioacchino Pecci).
Growing up in high society, Mimi spent her formative years abroad before making Rome her base. In 1919, she married the wealthy American banker, Cecil Blunt. The newlyweds settled in Paris where they opened their home to musicians, artists, poets, and dancers. Artists such as Serge Diaghilev, Jean Cocteau, Marie Laurencin, Salvador Dalí and Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita were frequent guests, the latter portraying the Pecci-Blunt family in 1923.
It was in Paris that her life-long journey of art collecting started, and where her passion for fostering the exchange between Italian and foreign artists truly came to life. The Pecci-Blunt residence grew into an artistic hub where an eccentric mix of royals, intellectuals and celebrities would gather, and lavish costume balls were held. Homes in Tuscany, Rome and the US followed. In the late 1930s, Mimi opened an extension of her Roman gallery La Cometa in New York, where she was the first to showcase Italian contemporary artists in a scene still largely dominated by French art. After the liberation of Europe, the family returned to Italy where Mimi continued to be an advocate for the arts until her death in 1971.