Masterpiece: Tate Gallery Artist Fougeron Expressive Girl / Bust of a Woman 1945 Charcoal on Paper

This powerful charcoal drawing of a woman that is a lot of things - intense, resilient, quizzical - was drawn by André Fougeron (1913-1998) at a significant moment in history. It was created in July 1945, just at the end of World War 2, of which Fougeron had seen his share.

Mobilised in the French Army, he fought in the Battle of Belgium, was caught, taken prisoner, escaped. He returned to Paris via the Free Zone and joined the resistance. He turned his artists'' studio into an underground print workshop, printing clandestine journals including the album of lithographs Vaincre, a collaborative work containing explicit denunciations of Hitler and the concentration camps, as well as decrying Petain and French collaborationist brutalities.

Already before the war, the young painter Fougeron had already started to make a reputation for himself. He exhibited with the ''Indelicates'', a group of radical young artists, at the Billiet-Vorms gallery. At the ''super-independent'' art fair, the Salon des Supindépendants, he showed political works on the subject of the Spanish Civil War. He had joined the Communist Party and was welcomed to the ''Maison de la Culture'', the powerhouse for a united Left front of intellectuals and artists in Paris.

The French establishment did not particularly appreciate being reminded of their shortcomings, and his lifelong allegiance to communism was considered rather awkward, too. Rather than being considered one of the major artists of the 20th Century, towards the end of the latter, Fougeron was almost forgotten in his native country. Oddly enough, his rehabilitation started in the UK.

In 1982, his work ''The Judges'' figured in ''Aftermath: new images of man, France 1944-1954'', which inaugurated the Barbican Art Gallery.

Surrounded by colourful paintings by Matisse, Bonnard and Picasso, Fougeron''s 1950 painting none the less dominated coverage of the exhibition. The Tate Modern in London dedicated a whole room to him at its opening in 2000. Of the eight paintings by Fougeron spanning the 1937-1958 period which have been acquired by the Tate, two are on permanent display.

Even in France, things are now changing: Fougeron had a one-man show in the Museum of Roubaix in 2014.

Fougeron''s works are rarely on the market, as many have been lost or destroyed, so I am absolutely delighted to be able to present this powerful dawing from the artist''s best period.

Measuring 60 x 47 cm at sight, our charcoal on paper is dated Juillet 45 and signed at the lower left/centre. The work has lovely provenance: it came from the collection of Karl Flinker, whose Gallery in Paris organised exhibitions of Vassily Kandinsky, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Jean Hélion, and other artists of the avant-garde.

The overall framed size in an ebonised oak custom frame is 78 x 61 cm.

Nous parlons français, und wir sprechen auch Deutsch! Paintings may be viewed in Norwich and in Paris, as well as in London and Cambridge by appointment. Please contact us if you would like further details and images of an artwork.