The Sleep of Reason | A Private Collection of Surrealist Art Online
The Sleep of Reason | A Private Collection of Surrealist Art Online
The Sleep of Reason: A Private Collection of Surrealist Art Online
LEON KELLY | THE ORIENTAL COCK
Lot Closed
May 20, 04:11 PM GMT
Estimate
800 - 1,200 USD
Lot Details
Description
LEON KELLY (1901 - 1982)
THE ORIENTAL COCK
Signed Leon Kelly and dated 1945 (lower right); signed Leon Kelly, titled in English, French and Spanish, inscribed La Fiesta de los Pájaros, The Carnival of Birds, and dated 1945 (on the verso)
Pen and ink and colored pencil on paper
10½ by 6¼ in. (26.7 by 15.9 cm)
Framed: 14¾ by 11⅝ in. (37.5 by 29.7 cm)
Executed in 1945.
Julien Levy, New York
Jean Levy, New York (by descent from the above and sold by the estate: Tajan, Paris, April 21, 2005, lot 323)
Gallery of Surrealism, New York
Acquired from the above on June 18, 2005
Growing up between a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and downtown Philadelphia, Leon Kelly was naturally inspired by the stillness of nature. He enrolled in the School of Industrial Art in 1921, where he won the scholarship to study abroad in Europe and develop his academic techniques from copying old-mater paintings in the Louvre. In 1940, Kelly was discovered by Julien Levy—the dealer at the forefront of Surrealism who represented major Surrealists including Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, and Salvador Dalí—and started to show his works at the eponymous gallery. Kelly eventually left New York for the remote beach town of Long Beach Island, New Jersey where he often observed the birds and insects that served as motifs for his most important works.