Tomás Hiepes

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been quite recently restored and should be hung as is. The canvas is lined. The numerous retouches that have been applied are designed to suppress cracking, thinness in the background and numerous spots in the vase. The restoration has been well applied and the picture looks well.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The present still-life is consistent with other formally arranged, frontal compositions by Hiepes which focus on a single vase with crisply rendered flowering plants. Also typical is the artist's use of muted brown and red colors, employed using a strong sense of chiaroscuro.  Certain elements in the present work can also be found elsewhere in Hiepes' oeuvre, in fact, the arrangement of flowers and the vase can be found separately in a pair of paintings which were sold New York, Sotheby's, 11 January 1990, lot 168.  Interestingly, Hiepes has here combined those elements into a single composition.  The artist was known to have reused motifs, and this type of flower arrangement can be seen in a number of Hiepes' works, for instance in his Porcelain Flowerpot-Stand or Window-Box With Strawberry Plants (see A. Sánchez and B. Navarrete Prieto, Thomas Yepes, exhibition catalogue, Valencia 1995, p. 116, reproduced in color).