Nicolas de STAEL - Original photograph signed by Denise Colomb.

Nicolas de STAEL(1914.1955)

Original photograph signed by Denise Colomb.

Vintage silver print. 1954.

Extraordinary photograph depicting Nicolas de Staël, seated, smoking and staring at the lens with all his beauty.

Photo taken in his workshop on rue Gauguet in Paris, a few months before his tragic death.

Titled “  De Staël  ”, dated and signed by Denise Colomb (with her stamp) on the back of the photograph.

Size: 18 x 24 cm.

Denise Colomb wrote about this session: “ It was the shock meeting of my career. Memories made even more moving after the tragedy, memories that remained completely present. It was both a confrontation and a complicity. He pulled out a large canvas of which I only saw the frame and which I suspect was one of his famous bottle paintings. The effort had tired him. I took de Staël, his arms hanging, as if he were exhausted. Then he crossed his arms, challenged me, challenged the world. I held my photo. I took him from a low angle to accentuate his tall silhouette. What emotion. »

Exhausted from the extreme tension that painting provoked in him, desperate for the love refused by Jeanne Mathieu, Nicolas de Staël killed himself on March 16, 1955, by throwing himself into the void from the terrace of his Antibes home. He left three letters, one to his friend Jacques Dubourg: “I do not have the strength to complete my paintings. Thank you for everything you have done for me. With all my heart. Nicholas.” ; to Jean Bauret: “  Dear Jean, if you have the time, if we organize any exhibition of my paintings, would you like to say what needs to be done so that they can be seen. Thank you for everything ”, and a last letter to his daughter, Anne de Staël, then aged 13.