Mediterranean Nude, Antique French Oil on Canvas by Roger Montane Circa 1950, Superb Provenance

If you love the dappled sunlight and mediterranean colours of Pierre Bonnard's warm and intimist oils, this is the painting for you!

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Roger Montané, the artist who painted it, was brought up and studied at art school in Toulouse. Called the "ville rose" in French because of its unique architecture made of pinkish terracotta bricks, the city has a golden light, azure skies and buildings of of red earth - exactly the colours of our painting here!

Roger Montagné came to Paris in 1947 on a government scholarship and studied with cubist André Lhote in Montparnasse.

Exhibiting at most of the Paris salons from 1949 (Salon d'Automne, Salon de Mai, Salon des Indépendants, Comparaisons, Témoins de leurs Temps), Montagné quickly built an international reputation. He was with Adams Gallery in London from 1952-1963, exhibited in Chicago, New York, Francfort, and at the Teheran Biennale. His Paris dealer was the highly acclaimed Galerie de la Présidance, opposite the Elysée Presidential Palace. Works byRoger Montané can nowbe found in numerous museums.

Our painting is an oil on canvas dating from the 1950s, is signed at the lower left and is signed again and titled on the verso. It measures 50 x 61 cm and has impreccable provenance: it comes from the Renand Chapet collection, much of which was recently auctioned at Sotheby's.

Georges Renand built up one of the most prominent collections of his time. Among the masterpieces already revealed to the public, Paulus Potter's The Piebald horse is now in the Getty Museum, while Van Gogh's Paysanne près de l’âtre and Seurat's Vue de la Seine are now in the Musée d’Orsay and the New York Metropolitan Museum. The three historic sales that took place at Drouot-Montaigne in 1987 and 1988 featured further wonders by Ingres, Corot, Seurat, Cézanne, Matisse and Modigliani (La Belle Romaine, La Femme à la cravate noire). An erudite, well-informed and daring collector eager to explore the centuries and keenly attentive to detail, Georges Renand started out with a drawing by Bonnard. He went to public auctions and galleries, bought from private individuals, often through his friend, architect Jean Walter, who married the widow of Paul Guillaume. One of Georges Renand's daughters, Jeannine, before marrying Edouard (Chapet), had grown up in this environment of humanistic grandeur. An exceptional skier who adored travelling, she pursued her father’s work – yet her way of collecting was very different. The many friendships that the couple formed with artists nourished and enriched the collection. Olivier Debré, Poliakoff and Estève appeared beside each other on the walls.

The overall framed size of our painting is 76 x 66 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.