María Blanchard

Galerie Percier, Paris
Melle van der Klipp
Galerie Spiess, Paris (acquired in 1972)
Sale: Mme Ader Picard-Tajan, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19th March 1983
Private Collection, France
Galería Jorge Mara, Madrid
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1998

Limoges, Museum of Fine Arts, Hommages à María Blanchard, 1965, no. 3

Antonio M. Campoy, María Blanchard, Madrid, 1981, illustrated p. 115
Liliane Caffin Madaule, Catalogue raisonné des œuvres de María Blanchard, London, 1992, vol. I, illustrated in colour p. 203
Maria Jose Salazar, María Blanchard 1889-1932, catalogue raisonné, Madrid, 2004, no. 86, illustrated in colour p. 211

The canvas is not lined. There is a thick varnish through which the UV light cannot fully penetrate, but UV examination does reveal some small retouchings in places, mainly to the central brown element. There are some fine lines of craquelure in places, mainly to the black and white pigments. Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition. Colours: overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue, though overall brighter and fresher in the original, especially the minty green.
"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."

The flat planar surfaces, blocks of colour and disrupted contours of Nature Morte firmly situate the work within the aesthetic of Cubism that revolutionised the Western concept of representation. María Blanchard has evidently conceived this still life, one of the most painterly subjects, from multiple perspectives without a single vanishing point in order to refine painting down to its fundamental, formalist elements. By 1915, having moved from Madrid to Paris, Blanchard had been introduced to Juan Gris through Jacques Lipchitz. Gris was at this time sharing a studio space with Pablo Picasso in the Bateau-Lavoir while the two experimented with this radical new aesthetic. Within no time at all Blanchard was converted and the present lot constitutes one of the few examples of her Cubist production; her slow working method and return to a figurative idiom around 1920 make such examples of her output decidedly rare.

Almost the entirety of Blanchard's œuvre was purchased by the dealer Léonce Rosenburg, the following quote demonstrating how canny Blanchard was in recognising her own deficiencies: 'He either gave me monthly appears or bought my paintings in advance, i.e. virtually the totality of my production. Don't forget that I worked slowly. The American buyers, such as Gertrude Stein and her brother, or Germans like Wilhelm Uhde, Russians with Tchoukine, and the often omitted Zborowski, Modigliani and Soutine's dealer, or again the Swiss Herman Ruff, did not visit my studio, which my painter friends were cautious not to tell him [Rosenburg], i.e. Gris, Rivera, Picasso and even Lhote' (Maria Blanchard quoted in, Liliane Caffin Madaule, Catalogue raisonné des œuvres de María Blanchard, London, 1992, p. 49). She suffered from kyphoscoliosis that left her with an abnormally curved spine and this is often mentioned as a key factor of her personality and appears to not have been as strong an influence socially as others of the Modernist Parisian school. However, as this work demonstrates, her contribution to the Cubist idiom was influential and unique; for example the contrasting earthy and sharp colours are demonstrative of her personal realisation of Cubist theories.