Horia Damian

huile sur toile
Monogrammée et datée 49 en bas à gauche



Peint dans l'atelier de Fernand Léger

Acquis avant 1982

Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris et  Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Fernand Léger, l'esprit moderne, 1982, no. 137
Paris, Galerie 1900-2000, RETRO SPORT 1850-1940, 1984, no. 363.

The canvas is not lined. There is a network of hairline craquelure, particularly visible in the yellow pigment, and some shrinkage, notably in the black below the number "10" shirt. Examination under UV light reveals several scattered spots that fluoresce predominantly in the lower half, indicating considerable retouching, notably to repair a 5cm tear visible in the black towards the centre of the composition. Otherwise this work remains in stable condition.
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'Joueurs de rugby', an oil on canvas by Horia Damian, 1949. Monogrammed and dated

Pendant longtemps, l'identité de l'artiste qui a peint ce tableau dans l'atelier de Fernand Léger resta ignorée. C’est à l'occasion de l'exposition Rétrosport en 1984 qu’Horia Damian, en recevant le carton d’invitation sur lequel figuraient Joueurs de rugby, reconnut la toile exécuté de sa main lorsqu’il était élève de Fernand Léger en 1949. Damian découvrit par ailleurs que son tableau avait été exposé au Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris et au Museum of Fine Arts à Houston, lors de l’importante Rétrospective consacrée à son maître Fernand Léger.

 

For a long time the identity of the artist who painted this work in Fernand Léger's studio was unknown. It was on the occasion of the Rétrosport exhibition in 1984 that Horia Damian, upon receiving the invitation card featuring Joueurs de rugby, recognised the canvas he had painted when he was a pupil of Fernand Léger in 1949. Damian then discovered that his picture had been exhibited at the Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, during the important retrospective dedicated to his mentor Fernand Léger.