BERNARD BUFFET | Venise, Santa Maria della Salute

Sale: Piasa, Paris, 20th June 2008, lot 26
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

The canvas is not lined and inspection under UV light reveals no signs of retouching. There are two minor fly spots, one in the sky in the upper right of the composition and one in the lower right quadrant, just above the largest gondola. There is a fine line of stable craquelure to the black pigment of the same gondola. This work is in overall very good condition.
"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."

Executed only a year after the artist’s lover, Pierre Bergé left him for the young fashion designer and Christian Dior’s successor, Yves Saint Laurent, this deeply sombre work exudes a nostalgia for Bergé and Buffet’s time in the Venice Biennale and the merriment, which accompanied it. In his biography on the artist, Nicholas Foulkes writes, ‘[Venice] was the perfect environment for Buffet; rigidly figurative, and possessed of an immense artistic culture, he regularly astonished serious art world professionals with the depth of his knowledge and the sheer amount of abstruse art history trivia he was capable of retrieving from inside his angular head’ (Nicholas Foulkes, Bernard Buffet: The Invention of the Modern Mega-Artist, London, 2016, p. 124). Venice represented a joyful and successful time for the artist. At a time when the Biennale was dominated by French taste (at the expense of visiting nations), Buffet was given the prestigious role of representing France. Buffet and Bergé greatly enjoyed their time in Venice, regularly arranging to meet with the French delegation of the Venice Biennale in the Piazza San Marco, tables livened with jovial conversation and plenty to drink. This joyous period came to an end in 1958. As Bergé recalls, ‘I had un coup de foudre, as we say in French, for Bernard Buffet in 1950, and I had a second coup de foudre for Yves Saint Laurent in 1958. Voilà. And I left, yes, I left’ (quoted in Ibid.) Painted in 1959, the outlines of the architectural elements of Venise, Santa Maria della Salute accentuated with Buffet’s famous black lines reflect the solemnity of the artist’s own personal circumstances. The work is however bestowed with an expressive and highly individual style. Buffet’s lines as described by art historian Alexander Roob, ‘fully incorporate the Eastern elements of French modernism, the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphics of the expressionism of Georges Rouault and Alfred Manessier, and line sketching of modern illustration” (Alexander Roob, “Bernard Buffet: Terrain Vague—Dangerous terrain,” in Der Spiegl, November 30, 1960, translated from German).

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Maurice Garnier.