Kees van Dongen

André & Lucile Martinais-Manguin (Galerie de Paris), Paris (acquired from the artist in 1946)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Paris, Galerie de France, Les Fauves. Peintures de 1903 à 1908, 1942, no. 33
Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Van Dongen, cinquante ans de peinture, 1942
Paris, Galerie Pierre Maurs, Le Salon du Spectacle, 1946, no. 75
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, The Fauves and their Purpose, 1950, no. 34
Bern, Kunsthalle, Les Fauves und die Zeitgenossen, 1950, no. 38, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Les Fauves, 1950, no. 34
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Le Fauvisme, 1951, no. 122
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Depuis Bonnard, 1957, no. 181 (with incorrect medium) 
Berlin, Nationalgalerie der Ehemals Staatlichen Museen, Orangerie des Schloss Charlottenburg & Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Triumph der Farbe - Die Europäischen Fauves, 1959, no. 76, illustrated in colour in the catalogue (with incorrect medium)
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Les Sources du XXème siècle. Les Arts en Europe de 1884 à 1914, 1960-61, no. 132 (with incorrect medium)
Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Les Fauves, 1962, no. 122, illustrated in the catalogue
Recklinghausen, Stadt Museum, Les Fauves, 1965, no. 7
Tokyo, Takashiyama; Osaka, Takashiyama & Fukuoka, Iwakaya, Les Fauves, 1965, no. 73, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne & Munich, Haus der Kunst, Le Fauvisme français et les débuts de l'Expressionnisme allemand, 1966, no. 113, illustrated in the catalogue
Hamburg, Kunstverein, Matisse und seine Freunde, Les Fauves, 1966, no. 92, illustrated in the catalogue (with incorrect medium)
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne & Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Van Dongen, 1967-68, no. 41, illustrated in colour in the catalogue (with incorrect medium)
Marseille, Musée Cantini, Hommage à Van Dongen, 1969, no. 20, illustrated in the catalogue (with incorrect medium)
Tuscon, The University of Arizona Museum of Art & Kansas City, The William Roskhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum, Cornelis Theodorus Marie Van Dongen: First American Retrospective, 1971, no. 60, illustrated in the catalogue (with incorrect medium) 
Monaco, Salle d'Expositions du Quai Antoine 1er, Van Dongen, 2008, no. 111, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, All Eyes on Kees van Dongen, 2010-11, no. 50, illustrated in colour n the catalogue (titled Le Clown musicien and incorrectly dated circa 1910)

Jean-Paul Crespelle, Les Fauves, Neuchâtel, 1962, no. 69, illustrated in colour
Louis Chaumeil, Van Dongen. L'homme et l'artiste - la vie et l'œuvre, Geneva, 1967, no. 87, illustrated (as dating from 1905-08 and with incorrect medium)
Gaston Diehl, Van Dongen, Paris, 1968, p. 11
Gaston Diehl, Van Dongen, Milan, 1969, illustrated in colour p. 11
Renata Negri, Matisse e i Fauves, Milan, 1969, illustrated in colour pl. LVII (with incorrect medium)
Denys Sutton, 'A Diamond as big as the Ritz,' in Apollo, vol. XCIII, January 1971, no. 107, illustrated pl. 8
Gaston Diehl, Les Fauves, Paris, 1971, illustrated p. 148
Jean Mélas Kyriazi, Van Dongen et le Fauvisme, Lausanne & Paris, 1971, no. 34, illustrated in colour p. 85 (with incorrect medium)
Marcel Giry, Le Fauvisme, ses origines, son évolution, Neuchâtel, 1981, illustrated in colour pl. 65 (with incorrect medium)
'Van Dongen', in Beaux-Arts, 1990, illustrated in colour pp. 20-21
'Van Dongen, fauve, anarchiste, mondain', in Beaux-Arts, 2011, illustrated in colour p. 67

The artist's board is laid down on panel, which is providing a stable arrangement. Apart from some spots and small areas of retouching in all four corners, and a few scattered small spots of retouching, mainly at the lower edge, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although stronger and more luminous in the original, particularly the orange in the figure.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Dating from the height of Van Dongen's Fauve period, the vibrant Le Clown exemplifies the spirited colour palette and painterly freedom of his most successful compositions. The period in which the present work was completed marks Van Dongen's transformation from a draughtsman to an avant-garde painter, with a shift of focus and technique from a linear approach to the painterly treatment of form. As in the present work, paint is applied in wide, flat brushstrokes and color assumes an expressive and highly charged quality. Marius-Ary Leblond analysed Van Dongen's use of colour in the preface to  the catalogue of the 1906 exhibition at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune: 'he breaks down the harmonies of the rosy skin, in which he discovers acid greens, blood orange reds, phosphorous yellows, vinous lilac, electric blues: instead of juxtaposing these shades in narrow strokes, he spreads them out in isolation, each over large areas [...] The artist, also breaking down the contours of the bodies in the atmosphere, doubles each essential line of the members with a band of a complementary colour, a sort of schematic make-up which he extends to the features of the face [...] to all the others of the bust and legs' (M.-A. Leblond, reprinted in Kees van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1989, p. 153). 

Van Dongen had started his career as an illustrator in his native Rotterdam and moved to Paris in 1897. It was then that Félix Fénéon introduced him to artists associated with the avant-garde journal La Revue blanche, including Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. His politically oriented drawings, executed in a notational style with vibrant colours, anticipated Fauvism. Van Dongen became known as a painter in 1905 when he participated at the Salon d'Automne alongside Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck. These artists would be dubbed Les Fauves or 'Wild Beasts' for their unstudied handling of paint and daring use of colour. As John Elderfield has noted, Van Dongen's stylistic progression seemingly passed through 'a Neo-Impressionist phase. By 1905 he had found his way into a loose impromptu style analogous to the mixed-technique Fauvism of the Matisse circle, especially in his paintings of nudes. But the main direction of his art was fast becoming geared to the representation of subjects different from those of the other Fauves' (J. Elderfield, The "Wild Beasts": Fauvism and Its Affinities, New York, 1976, p. 66).

Indeed, Van Dongen's choice of subjects were unlike those of his colleagues, and the present work exemplifies his highly individualised artistic focus. The popular Cirque Médrano (fig. 1), located on the Boulevard Rochechouart, provided Van Dongen with an ideal aesthetic spectacle from which he derived some of his most spirited compositions. While the subject of acrobats and the circus attracted several artists of the early 20th century, including Picasso (fig. 3) and Chagall, it was Van Dongen who essentially solidified his artistic reputation by depicting the brightly lit pageantry of this fun-filled event. The present work is one of the artist's most celebrated oils on this theme. Depicting a clown performing in a circus ring with a horse and rider in the distance, Van Dongen invests his composition with all of the frenetic activity and absurdity that one so often associates with this lively event. By abruptly cropping the rider in the background and saturating his canvas with sharp tones of orange and red, the artist effectively captured the energised atmosphere of this performance occuring beneath the harsh electric lights of the circus tent. The present work  is a striking and vibrant example of the aesthetic tendencies of the Fauve painters, reflecting the spirited endeavour of this ground-breaking movement in early 20th century art.

The first owner of Le Clown was Lucile Martinais-Manguin, the youngest daughter of the painter Henri Manguin. Martinais-Manguin opened a couture house in Paris and, together with her husband André, amassed an impressive collection of modern art. After several years, the couple transformed the fashion house into an art gallery, called Galerie de Paris. For most of its history, Le Clown belonged to Martinais-Manguin and her gallery, who generously lent it to exhibitions and museums around the world, making it one of Van Dongen's most recognisable images.

Fig. 1, The Medrano Circus, Boulevard Rochechouart, Paris, circa 1910
Fig. 2, Kees van Dongen, Jeune Arabe, 1910, oil on canvas. Sold: Sotheby's, New York, 4th November 2009
Fig. 3, Pablo Picasso, Acrobate à la boule, 1905, oil on canvas, Pushkin State Museum, Moscow