Armando Reverón (1889-1954)

Franziska Tugendhat de Igler, Caracas (acquired from the artist)
Doris Igler de Boesner, Caracas (by descent from previous owner)
Acquired from the above by the present owners

Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes, Exposición Retrospectiva de Armando Reverón, July 1955, no. 257

Alfredo Boulton, Reverón, Milan, 1979, p. 94, illustrated
Juan Calzadilla, Armando Reverón, Caracas, 1991, no. 419, p.335, illustrated

The paper has been laid down on a thick board—most likely at the time the work was made. There is scattered foxing on the paper and the board. There is overall darkening of the paper, particularly visible in the upper third of the work. There are rippled and creases to the paper in the upper third of the paper board. There are scattered tears to the paper: one in the lower third near the center, another in the woman's thigh, two in the upper third—one near the center and the other 1 in. above the woman's head. There are also some scattered tears to the paper near the left and right edge, but they do not interfere with the composition. There are two small accretions in the center, near the lower edge-perhaps residue from an old mat.
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There are at least 4 variations of this composition that were painted between 1945 and 1948. The better known of these versions, executed circa 1945, made Reveron the winner of the Premio Nacional de Arte in 1953 and it is now in the collection of the Galeria de Arte Nacional in Caracas. The figure of this award winning painting is turned to the right and crosses the canvas in a diagonal. This version has the model looking to the left but it is in essence the same pose although it exhibits a more mysterious quality. In 1948 and 1949, the last two productive years of his artistic life, the drawing qualities became more agitated as rapid strokes of charcoal and pastels animate an otherwise serene composition.

It is also interesting to know–pour la petite histoire--that Franziska Tugendhat Igler acquired this powerful Nude with another large drawing directly from the artist in one of the visits she did to Macuto. The first drawing, a majestic standing nude was sold at Sala Mendoza in Caracas in the 1980's. Mrs Tugendhat arrived to Venezuela in 1941 as a war refugee with her brother Fritz Tugendhat  who had commissioned the Tugendhat Villa (now in the UNESCO World Heritage list) to Mies van der Rohe in Brno in the Czech Republic in 1930. Mrs Tugendhat was also an amateur photographer who left a small series of photos of Reverón, his companion Juanita and the Macuto house dating from the late 1940s and early 1950s.