- 39
BERNARD BUFFET | Bœuf écorché, 1954
Estimate
200,000 - 400,000 EUR
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Description
- Bernard Buffet
- Bœuf écorché, 1954
- 195,5 x 149,9 cm; 77 x 59 in.
signed Bernard Buffet and dated 54 lower right; oil on canvas
Provenance
Pierre Bergé, Paris (gift from the artist)
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Cent tableaux de 1944 à 1958 par Bernard Buffet, 1958, no. 70
Paris, Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint-Laurent
Paris, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Rétrospective Bernard Buffet, 2016-17, illustrated in the catalogue p. 61
Saint-Rémy de Provence, Musée Estrine, Bernard Buffet, la collection Pierre Bergé, 2018
Paris, Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint-Laurent
Paris, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Rétrospective Bernard Buffet, 2016-17, illustrated in the catalogue p. 61
Saint-Rémy de Provence, Musée Estrine, Bernard Buffet, la collection Pierre Bergé, 2018
Literature
Jérôme Coignard, Bernard Buffet, Les années 1950, Entretien avec Pierre Bergé, Paris, 2016, no. 12, illustrated p. 26
Condition
Please contact the Impressionist and Modern Art Department for the condition report for this lot.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Galerie Maurice Garnier.
"This Boeuf écorché is extraordinary! It is a real great piece of painting, a challenge that he threw himself and that he has perfectly succeeded. He obviously thought of Rembrandt, he obviously thought of Soutine, one of the rare artists of his time for whom he had esteem.[...] Bernard always told the story of the beef carcass Soutine kept for eight days in his studio. The neighbours were alarmed by the smell. There is evidently a precision in Buffet's painting that does not exist with Soutine."
Pierre Bergé
Bœuf écorché is an expression of Bernard Buffet's admiration for the old masters. An admirer of Dürer, Rembrandt, Chardin, David and Courbet, Bernard Buffet regularly visited the Louvre when it reopened after the war in 1946. His love of old painting doubtless comes from here and this confrontation can be found throughout his work, from his still-lifes, sometimes directly inspired by masterpieces from the Louvre, to his portraits imbued with a powerful hieratic character inspired by great 17th century portraits.
In his Boeuf écorché, Bernard Buffet pays a direct tribute to Rembrandt. The theme of the skinned carcass was already present in Bernard Buffet's work. A few years earlier the young painter had reinterpreted Rembrandt's mythical subject in Le Garçon boucher (1949, Surugadaira, Musée Bernard Buffet), Etal de boucherie (1949) and le Bœuf écorché (1950, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris).
This painting is however the first time that Bernard Buffet was to quote so directly the Dutch painter's masterpiece, both in its framing and its use of palette. As in the Louvre painting, the beef carcass emerges from the canvas alone, its majesty further increased by the monumental format. The grey and blue tones, so characteristic of Bernard Buffet's post-war painting, give way here to brown and red colors, more directly evocative of the animal's skinned flesh and source of inspiration for the painter.
in doing so, Bernard Buffet fits into a long tradition of painters who have reinterpreted Rembrandt's emblematic work over the 20th century, from Chaim Soutine, for whom it was a preferred subject and who Bernard Buffet greatly admired, to Marc Chagall who painted Le Boeuf écorché in 1947 (Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou). In 1954, the same year as Bernard Buffet's painting, Francis Bacon produced his famous Figure with meat (Art Institute of Chicago), having already interpreted the skinned carcass in various compositions since 1946.
In the same manner he painted his Ecorchés in 1964, Bernard Buffet adopts a huge size here, depriving the figure of any attributes, he explores colour and matter through thick layers of paint, endowing the work with a carnal aspect. As Maurice Sérullaz emphasized in 1954, the very year the work was produced, "whatever is said or thought about Bernard Buffet and his choice of subject, it is no less true that his art is that of a master. [...] We thus penetrate into the veritable universe recreated by Bernard Buffet, and disregarding the apparent ugliness, we capture the universal beauty, as we capture the beauty of Rembrandt's skinned carcass, Gericault's corpses and madmen, certain portraits by Goya or Degas's Viol. Bernard Buffet's works are harmonious in composition and colour. A rhythm which connects him to the great medieval or classic masters bestows grandeur, I would even say a nobility of style."
"This Boeuf écorché is extraordinary! It is a real great piece of painting, a challenge that he threw himself and that he has perfectly succeeded. He obviously thought of Rembrandt, he obviously thought of Soutine, one of the rare artists of his time for whom he had esteem.[...] Bernard always told the story of the beef carcass Soutine kept for eight days in his studio. The neighbours were alarmed by the smell. There is evidently a precision in Buffet's painting that does not exist with Soutine."
Pierre Bergé
Bœuf écorché is an expression of Bernard Buffet's admiration for the old masters. An admirer of Dürer, Rembrandt, Chardin, David and Courbet, Bernard Buffet regularly visited the Louvre when it reopened after the war in 1946. His love of old painting doubtless comes from here and this confrontation can be found throughout his work, from his still-lifes, sometimes directly inspired by masterpieces from the Louvre, to his portraits imbued with a powerful hieratic character inspired by great 17th century portraits.
In his Boeuf écorché, Bernard Buffet pays a direct tribute to Rembrandt. The theme of the skinned carcass was already present in Bernard Buffet's work. A few years earlier the young painter had reinterpreted Rembrandt's mythical subject in Le Garçon boucher (1949, Surugadaira, Musée Bernard Buffet), Etal de boucherie (1949) and le Bœuf écorché (1950, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris).
This painting is however the first time that Bernard Buffet was to quote so directly the Dutch painter's masterpiece, both in its framing and its use of palette. As in the Louvre painting, the beef carcass emerges from the canvas alone, its majesty further increased by the monumental format. The grey and blue tones, so characteristic of Bernard Buffet's post-war painting, give way here to brown and red colors, more directly evocative of the animal's skinned flesh and source of inspiration for the painter.
in doing so, Bernard Buffet fits into a long tradition of painters who have reinterpreted Rembrandt's emblematic work over the 20th century, from Chaim Soutine, for whom it was a preferred subject and who Bernard Buffet greatly admired, to Marc Chagall who painted Le Boeuf écorché in 1947 (Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou). In 1954, the same year as Bernard Buffet's painting, Francis Bacon produced his famous Figure with meat (Art Institute of Chicago), having already interpreted the skinned carcass in various compositions since 1946.
In the same manner he painted his Ecorchés in 1964, Bernard Buffet adopts a huge size here, depriving the figure of any attributes, he explores colour and matter through thick layers of paint, endowing the work with a carnal aspect. As Maurice Sérullaz emphasized in 1954, the very year the work was produced, "whatever is said or thought about Bernard Buffet and his choice of subject, it is no less true that his art is that of a master. [...] We thus penetrate into the veritable universe recreated by Bernard Buffet, and disregarding the apparent ugliness, we capture the universal beauty, as we capture the beauty of Rembrandt's skinned carcass, Gericault's corpses and madmen, certain portraits by Goya or Degas's Viol. Bernard Buffet's works are harmonious in composition and colour. A rhythm which connects him to the great medieval or classic masters bestows grandeur, I would even say a nobility of style."