NICOLAS DE STAËL | Composition

Jeanne Bucher Collection, Paris
Private Collection, Paris (acquired in 1945 and thence by descent)
Christie's, London, 29 June 2011, Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Auction, lot 239
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Roger van Gindertael, Nicolas de Staël, Paris, 1950, p. 9
Jacques Dubourg & Françoise de Staël, Nicolas de Staël, Catalogue Raisonné des peintures, Paris, 1968, no. 15, illustrated, p. 61
Jean-Pierre Jouffroy, La Mesure de Nicolas de Staël, Neuchâtel, 1981, no. 33, illustrated in colour, p. 84
Françoise de Staël, Nicolas de Staël, Catalogue Raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Neuchâtel, 1997, no. 33, illustrated, p. 189

The colours are fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration. The canvas is slightly undulated, mainly visible on the left half of the work. The edges close to the rims present wear marks together with tiny cracks, due to former framing. A small loss is located on the right edge close to the rim and upper right corner. Two tiny losses are located along the left edge close to the rim. Upon close inspection tiny cracks are visible in the lower right quadrant in the brown areas. The upper right quadrant presents a diagonal hairline crack. The black area in the center of the lower half of the composition presents tiny uplifts visible upon very close inspection only and tiny areas that fluoresce under Ultra Violet Light inspection. Under ultra violet light inspection small areas fluoresce in the upper right quadrant and along the left and upper edge.
"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."

During the year 1944, Georges Braque regularly invited Nicolas de Staël, trying his best to help the young painter he considered exceptionally talented but who was freezing and starving to death in his mansion of rue Nollet, which Laurent Greilsamer admirably depicted in his biography of the artist entitled Le Prince Foudroyé: "A strange atmosphere of tragedy exudes from this string of empty rooms: on the ground floor, several have become unusable. Nicolas collects his kindling from the floorings and libraries. There is very little left of the connecting doors. In the kitchen, several big piles of dirty plates are precariously balanced on an occasional table. Woodworks are encrusted with smells of cold tobacco and turpentine. In the garden, only two or three trees, with their dark bare arms, sadly stripe the horizon." Proud, generous, dashing and hardworking, Staël, on the edge of the abyss and torn apart by critics -"amateurs, afraid of his paintings, call it mud, car accidents!" (Jacques Laval, Un homme partagé)- keeps painting with passion. With its dense and charged palette of colors, its light spreading from the canvas as if through a fragment of stained glass, its entanglements and material growing thicker and ticker, Composition, 1944, is a vibrant and unique testimony of the work of the artist, unanimously recognized as one of the greatest painters of the 20^th century.

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It takes a lot of work: a ton of passion and a hundred grams of patience. 
Nicolas de Staël, Lettre à Jean Adrian, Paris 1945