- 321
Pavel Tchelitchew
Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- Pavel Tchelitchew
- Toreador
- Signed P. Tchelitchew and dated 34 (lower right)
- Gouache on card laid down on panel
- 29 5/8 by 40 7/8 in.
- 75.2 by 103.9 cm
Provenance
Mme Alexandra Zaoussailoff, Paris (sister of the artist)
Private Collection (and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, May 21, 1975, lot 56)
Acquired at the above sale
Private Collection (and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, May 21, 1975, lot 56)
Acquired at the above sale
Condition
This work is in overall good condition. The card is mounted to a secondary mulberry paper glued and stretched over a 1" deep masonite panel. This support is in very good condition. There are a few small strokes of inpainting towards the center of the upper edge and the upper right corner. A few scattered spots of minor surface abrasion. The sheet is lightly time darkened. Otherwise, fine.
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 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.
Catalogue Note
Tchelitchew traveled to Spain in 1934 and stayed briefly in Fuengerola, a small fishing village in Málaga. The culture and shimmering light he found there "produced an enormous impression... The dry mother of pearl landscape of northern Spain, the characteristic proud faces of men and women dressed in dark clothes, the bullfights, the towns, the Arabian vestiges, all combined to make me take a wholly new dimension" (Lincoln Kirstein, Pavel Tchelitchew (exhibition catalogue), New York, Gallery of Modern Art, 1964, p. 27).
Toreador is one of a three-gouache series that constitutes the artist's best-known output from this period (see fig. 1). The imagery reveals an undeniable affinity with the work of Salvador Dalí; although, as James Thrall Soby points out, "while Dalí deliberately painted his images so that through a change in the observer's concentration these images would abruptly lose their original identities, becoming a second set of images temporarily blotting out the first, Tchelitchew's aim was the opposite. He intended his second and subsequent images to merge with and into the basic form of the picture, never obtruding themselves or obliterating, however momentarily, the outlines and impact of the original theme" (James Thrall Soby, Pavel Tchelitchew (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1942, p. 19).
As Soby describes Tchelitchew's Spanish oeuvre, "each object was to be rendered as a single image seen from a fixed viewpoint. But the viewpoint was to change from one object to the next, and within the same composition any object was to be represented as seen from any one of the three perspectives which suited his purpose. He promptly applied this system of triple perspective to three gouaches of bullfights," the present work included (ibid., p. 26).
Indeed, Tchelitchew's playful use of perspective seems only to heighten the symbolic value of the present desert dreamscape, allowing the viewer an unobstructed view of the violent slaying as well as the Catalan figure in the background—despite the long flowing cape of the toreador at left, which may well be perceived as that figure's attempt to shield them from sight. Rather than purposefully obscuring a sense of narrative, the artist thereby guides the viewer's attention to it, pointedly revealing the strained political climate in Spain in the mid-1930s.
Toreador is one of a three-gouache series that constitutes the artist's best-known output from this period (see fig. 1). The imagery reveals an undeniable affinity with the work of Salvador Dalí; although, as James Thrall Soby points out, "while Dalí deliberately painted his images so that through a change in the observer's concentration these images would abruptly lose their original identities, becoming a second set of images temporarily blotting out the first, Tchelitchew's aim was the opposite. He intended his second and subsequent images to merge with and into the basic form of the picture, never obtruding themselves or obliterating, however momentarily, the outlines and impact of the original theme" (James Thrall Soby, Pavel Tchelitchew (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1942, p. 19).
As Soby describes Tchelitchew's Spanish oeuvre, "each object was to be rendered as a single image seen from a fixed viewpoint. But the viewpoint was to change from one object to the next, and within the same composition any object was to be represented as seen from any one of the three perspectives which suited his purpose. He promptly applied this system of triple perspective to three gouaches of bullfights," the present work included (ibid., p. 26).
Indeed, Tchelitchew's playful use of perspective seems only to heighten the symbolic value of the present desert dreamscape, allowing the viewer an unobstructed view of the violent slaying as well as the Catalan figure in the background—despite the long flowing cape of the toreador at left, which may well be perceived as that figure's attempt to shield them from sight. Rather than purposefully obscuring a sense of narrative, the artist thereby guides the viewer's attention to it, pointedly revealing the strained political climate in Spain in the mid-1930s.