Striking Modernist Abstracted Still Life, Exhibited 1950 Illustrious Provenance, Oil on Board

Masterpiece: a striking semi-abstract still life by Thadeus Fuss-Kaden (1914-1985). This is a rare work by the elusive Polish émigré artist whose paintings were acquired by the likes of Samuel Beckett and Artur Rubinstein.

The artwork has illustrious provenance: it came from the estate of the mythical Paris art dealers Bernheim-Jeune, who organised a major one man show of the artist in 1950

Bernheim-Jeune started presenting works by Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Paul Cézanne, Henri-Edmond Cross, Kees van Dongen, Henri Matisse, Le Douanier Rousseau, Raoul Dufy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Amedeo Modigliani and Maurice Utrillo.

From 1906 to 1925, art critic Félix Fénéon was the director of the gallery and was instrumental in bringing in the art of Georges Seurat. The gallery became one of the centers of the artistic avant-garde.

Our oil on masonite bears the Bernheim-Jeune inventory number 01671 on the

stretcher bars, where there is also a label with its original price tag of 110.000 francs - which was a vast sum in 1950! On the stretcher, too, features the November 1950 Bernheim-Jeune exhibition label with the original title "Nature Morte à là Fenêtre", and Fuss-Kaden's address in Nice..

Measuring 65 x 81 cm, the overall size in an artist strip frame is 66 x 82 cm.

On the recto, the painting is signed at the lower left.

Fuss-Kaden was born 15 September 1914 in Krakow, Poland, and was educated at Krakow University, the Institute of Plastic Arts, Warsaw, and the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. After fleeing Poland in 1939, he lived in Switzerland, in Nice and in Paris. In Nice he won first prizes in 1951 and 1952 from the Mediterranean Union for Modern Art.

One-man shows with some of the worlds' most prestigious galleries - Edouard Loeb in Paris, Marlborough Gallery in London, Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York - succeeded one another. The artist exhibited also at the Carnegie Institute/International Exhibition of Pittsburgh and the Menton Biennale. Known purchases from art museums are Museum d´Art Moderne, Paris 1962, 1963 and University of Massachusetts, Amherst 1962.

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.