Francis Picabia

Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 13, 1926, lot 107
Private Collection, Nantes
Sale: Drouot Montaigne, Paris, June 17, 1997, lot 81
Sale: Christie's, New York, November 12, 1997, lot 364
Acquired at the above sale

Maria-Lluïsa Borràs, Picabia, New York, 1985, no. 153, illustrated p. 72
William A. Camfield, Beverley Calté, Candace Clements, Arnauld Pierre & Pierre Calté, Francis Picabia, Catalogue Raisonné, 1898-1914, vol. I, New Haven & London, 2014, no. 210, illustrated p. 231

This work is in excellent condition. The canvas is not lined. A rich and textured impasto is well preserved throughout. The surface is clean. The canvas is slightly loose and gently buckling towards the upper left corner. Under UV light: there is a 1 cm area of retouching in the lower left quadrant which corresponds to a repaired tear on the reverse. 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.

L’Église de Ouistreham, effet de soleil dates from Picabia's early years—a period marked by eager exploration of Impressionist technique and indicative of his dexterous virtuosity as a painter. These paintings of the French countryside, ranging from the nearby outskirts of Paris to the northern shores of Normandy, were typical of the evolving Impressionist aesthetic at the turn of the century, and Picabia deftly transitioned from Impressionism to Neo-Impressionism to Fauvism at a rapid clip and with a unique confidence, demonstrating a commitment to radical exploration and evolution that would prefigure his significant future contributions to Cubism, Surrealism and the Dada movement, all the while defying any consistent categorization of his output. While Picabia’s Impressionist works are extraordinary in method and often scale, it is only a relatively recent phenomenon that these works have been re-evaluated and contextualized from an academic perspective. As William Camfield writes: "Picabia's image has been so dominated by his Dada activities that even some friends have found it difficult to believe that he once was an Impressionist. Their surprise notwithstanding, virtually every artist who contributed to 'modern' art during the first decade of the twentieth century passed through an Impressionist or Neo-impressionist phase early in his career; Picabia is exceptional only in the fact that for him Impressionism was not merely a passing phase but a major period" (William Camfield, Francis Picabia: His Art, Life and Times, New York, 1979, p. 8).

Interestingly, many of Picabia’s works from this period were painted not en plein air, as was the preferred mode of the early Impressionists, but rather from his studio. A number were painted from photographs and even printed postcard reproductions of works by other artists, in essence becoming copies of copies and establishing an early example of Picabia's foray into appropriation and proto-Dada technique.