Léopold Survage

Sotheby's London, Russian Art, 27 November 2007, lot 294

Cologne, Kölner Kunstverein, Leopold Survage Retrospective, 1960, no.40
Paris, Musée Galliera, Léopold Survage Retrospective, 6 April - 2 May 1966, no.104
Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Survage, 1968

Exhibition catalogue Léopold Survage Retrospective, Paris, Musée Galliera, 1966, no.104 listed, incorrectly dated
Exhibition catalogue Survage, Lyon, 1968, p.32 illustrated

In the late 1930s Survage comes in contact with the Surrealist André Masson, who encourages his interest in symbolic and mystical themes. In the present lot the artist turns to the fairy tale of the Beauty and the Beast. He paints his 'beauty' in white and pastel colours, which contrast with the scarlet of the face of the 'beast' and the mouth of the horse. The cursive line that previously dominated Survage's compositions gives way to strict geometrical structures: the protagonists are circumscribed within the limits of simple circular shapes. The overall impression of Beauty and the Beast is that of a collage or a cut out, in which formal elements of line and colour are united and ‘form itself generates a rhythm’ (Greer Gallery, New York, 1968, p.4). The painting was exhibited three times during the artist's lifetime.