AUGUSTE HERBIN | La Place Maubert

Henry B. Simms, Hamburg (acquired before September 1908)
Private Collection, Hamburg (acquired in the 1950s and sold: Ketterer Kunst, Munich, May 17, 2002, lot 27)
Private Collection, Germany (acquired at the above sale and sold: Sotheby’s, London, June 24, 2003, lot 147)
Acquired at the above sale

Paris, 23ème Salon des Indépendents, 1907, no. 5321

Henry B. Simms, Meine Bilder, Hamburg, 1910, illustrated p. 93
Geneviève Claisse, Herbin, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Paris, 1993, no. 121, illustrated p. 300

This work is in very good condition. The canvas is unlined. There are artist's pinholes at all four corners. The impasto is well-preserved and the pigments are bright and fresh. There is a a pindot loss at the center of the upper edge. There is some minor, stable, hairline craquelure in the light yellow pigments and in the figure in the lower left quadrant, and in the white pigments in the upper left quadrant, and in the figure near the lower right corner. Under UV light some original pigments fluoresce, however this is evidence of a few small strokes of inpainting in the upper left corner and in the dark green pigments near the center. These is a small L-shaped patch on the reverse of the canvas at upper center of the reverse of the canvas that does not appear to correlate to any inpainting. 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.

The present work is an expressive vision of a painting showcasing Herbin at the peak of his involvement with the Fauve movement. It combines deft brushwork with a sensitive and emotive use of color. Having started his career by working in an Impressionist and then Divisionist style, Herbin fully embraced Fauvism by 1906, exhibiting alongside André Derain, Georges Braque and Maurice de Vlaminck at the 1907 Salon des Indépendents. This 1907 oil at the zenith of his Fauvist practice infuses what might otherwise be a typical street scene with emotion and vibrancy through Herbin’s strategic use of saturated color.   This work is an expressive example of the impact of photography on painting’s parameters as an art and a practice. With the advent of photography in the early 1800s and its proliferation into everyday life by the turn of the century, painting was no longer confined to serving purely documentary purposes. With this new freedom of practice, Impressionist and Fauve artists such as Herbin were able to reinvent the possibilities of paint to emphasize self-expression, individual perspective and emotional release. Although the following years would see the artist move into the famed Bateau Lavoir studios in Paris and work alongside artists Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris to rapidly evolve his style through Cubism, ultimately becoming a founding member of the Abstraction-Création movement, this piece serves as a monument to his Fauvist practice and an early example of his career-long passion for the qualities of color.