Kees van Dongen

Mrs. Olga Frere, Brussels
Private Collection, New York
André Ravsen Fine Art, Connecticut
Larry & Leah Superstein, Los Angeles (acquired from the above in 1998 and sold: Sotheby's, London, June 20, 2007, lot 346)
Private Collection, Europe (acquired at the above sale)
Thence by descent

Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition Van Dongen, 1913

Louis Chaumeil, Van Dongen, L'Homme et l'artiste: la vie et l'oeuvre, Geneva, 1967, illustrated fig. 43

The work is in very good condition. The canvas is not lined. The surface is nicely textured, with some very thin lines of craquelure in the thickest white areas at top center as well as in the dark blue at bottom. There is a pin-sized loss to the left of the figure's hair. Under UV light: no inpainting is apparent.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In December 1905 van Dongen, with his wife Guus and their young daughter Dolly, moved to a studio in the Bateau-Lavoir, where Picasso, Herbin, Gris and other artists lived and worked. He came to be associated with the Fauve painters with whom he first exhibited in the 1905 Salon d’Automne; it was during that exhibition that the term ‘Les Fauves’ was coined. This period marked van Dongen’s transformation from a talented draughtsman to a true avant-garde painter, with a shift of focus and technique from a strictly linear approach to a thick and very painterly treatment of form. As in the present work, he applied paint in thick brushstrokes, and his palette assumed an expressive and highly charged quality, earning van Dongen a place at the forefront of the European vanguard in the first decade of the twentieth century.

The exoticism and spectacle of the circus were to provide the perfect foil for van Dongen, whose exuberant palette and stylized figures suited this bohemian milieu. Together with Picasso, he often visited the Médrano circus, and around this time clowns, dancers and acrobats become his main subjects. The leaping nude figure owes something to Matisse’s La Danse (see fig. 1), and the combination of intense warm colors against the cool blue-green background and the exuberance of the dancing figure conveys an impression of emotional liberation. The dancers in van Dongen’s work exude a primitive vitality, free from the usual constraints imposed by bourgeois society, and they reflect his fascination with the human body. Thus his depiction of the elongated women and bold rendering of luminous color provide us with a vibrant and blissful scene of gaiety and allure.

As one contemporary critic enthused, "Van Dongen's art irresistibly draws us in, because it is filled with passion and ardent sensuality... whether he paints society women or prostitutes, errand girls or actresses, dancers or oriental women, his constant and only concern is to capture on canvas, with extraordinarily rich colors, the form, appearance, and soul of today's woman" (quoted in Antoine Bertrand, "'Un Temps Fou:' An Investigation of the Artist's Studio as Workplace and Playground," in Van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, 2008, p. 254).