Skippings Fine Arts has dated this piece to the 1920s.
Painted by an anonymous master and unsigned, it represents a creek - presumably in the South of France - depicted in an unusual, refined palette of colours. Painted on a panel by Montparnasse Fine Art supplier Lucien Lefebvre, the painting comes purportedly from the estate of the Lefebvre-Foinets, which was auctioned at Christies and at the French auction house Piasa in 2009.
France’s best-known supplier of artist materials was originally founded in 1880 by Paul Foinet, who started off selling his wares door to door quickly building a reputation for the quality of his hand-ground natural pigments. In 1902 he went into business with his son-in-law, Lucien Lefebvre, and the two set up shop in a permanent premises on the corner of rue Vavin and rue Brea in the Parisian artists’ quarter of Montparnasse.
Their customers reads like a roll call of the greatest artists of the 20th century: Constantin Brancusi, Douanier Rousseau, Wassily Kandinsky, Amedeo Modigliani, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, and Henri Matisse. The family forged close friendships with many of their clients, whom they would allow to buy on credit and, if at the end of the month an artist couldn’t pay, they would often accept pictures in payment of debts. The three successive generations of Lefebvre-Foinets were a continuous presence at the centre of the Parisian art world and over the years amassed an outstanding collection of hundreds of works.
Measuring 22 x 27 cm, the overall dimensions of the painting with its original frame are 32 x 26 cm.
Skippings Fine Arts has dated this piece to the 1920s.
Modern french & continental pictures selected by a former french auction house expert
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The Creek: French Cezannian Cubist Abstract Landscape, Circa 1920, Oil on Panel
