Victor Brauner

Private Collection, Paris
Sale: Christie's, London, May 10, 2000, lot 609
Private Collection, United States (acquired at the above sale and sold: Christie's, London, February 6, 2006, lot 130)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Vienna, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Victor Brauner, 1965, no. 51,  p. 57
Milan, Galleria Credito Valtellinese, Victor Brauner, 1995, no. 26, illustrated p. 26

Good condition. Original canvas. Surface is slightly dirty. Areas in the lighter pigment in the lower figure are thinned, but this appears to be inherent to the artist's process. There is a 10 inch raised hairline extending from left edge at center that appears to be inherent to the canvas. Under UV light, there is significant inpainting in the top ¼ of the composition in the background. There are 10-15 strokes of inpainting in the yellow pigments in the arm of the top figure. There are 5-10 small strokes just above the head of the top figure and 5-10 small strokes above the head of the bottom figure. There are 4 inch-long strokes of inpainting in the upper body and arm of the lower figure and several strokes at extreme edges to address frame abrasion.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted in 1943, the present work wonderfully illustrates the transmuted figures and mythical subjects so particular to Brauner's playful compositions. During the thirties, eyes became a dominant theme in Brauner's art. Long haunted by a paranoia of being blinded, he was to lose the sight of his left eye while attempting to calm a violent argument between two friends in 1938. After this date, the subject ceased to feature in the artist's paintings but his work thereafter was changed. The subjects and symbols Brauner chose to depict became more two-dimensional and even more fantastical. The hybrid creatures such as those figured in this work were a recurrent theme in Brauner's oeuvre but he now chose to depict them using flat planes of color and geometric shapes, stripping away their volume and depth until all that remains is their basic primitive form.

Having been introduced to the surrealist group in 1933 by his friend Yves Tanguy, Brauner's style and pictorial language eventually evolved and matured to a point from which he was able to break away and develop his own entirely unique style. In discussing Brauner's work from the forties onwards, Alain Jeoffroy notes that the artist's "poetic and plastic inventiveness followed none of the previous aesthetic systems established by the first creators of surrealism ... Victor Brauner was the inventor of a new kind of painting, different from those that could be seen in galleries and studios. This new kind of painting was in a class all by itself because it transformed subjective fantasies into a sort of scenography of the imagination, intuitively understandable by all" (quoted in Victor Brauner (exhibition catalogue), Didier Imbert Fine Art, Paris, 1990, p. 8).