Nicolas de STAËL - Original signed work - Landscape, 1952.

Nicolas de STAËL (1914.1955)

Original signed work – Landscape, 1952.

Felt on paper. Dimensions 107 x 75 cm.

“I know that my life will be a continual voyage on an uncertain sea”

Extraordinary work, in spectacular format, by the Franco-Russian artist, signed and dated lower right: Staël 52 , and dedicated lower left: To Suzanne Tézenas.

Precious testimony of the Mediterranean landscapes of Nicolas de Staël, in eternal quest for the aesthetic absolute.

Bibliography:

. Laura Malvano, La mostra di Nicolas de Staël a Torino , 1960 (illustrated page 12).

. André Chastel, Nicolas de Staël , Archives Maeght. Paris, 1972, no. 3 (illustrated on page 29).

. Nicolas de Staël , cat. exp., Tate Gallery, London, 1981 (illustrated page 155).

. Daniel Dobbels, Staël , 1994, Paris (illustrated page 49).

. Nicolas de Staël , cat. exp., Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, 1960 (illustrated page 80).

. Françoise de Staël, Nicolas de Staël, Catalog raisonné of works on paper , 2013, no. 485 (illustrated p. 234).

Exhibitions:

. Bern. Kunsthalle, Nicolas de Staël , September-October 1957, no. 101.

. Paris. Galerie J. Bucher, 43 drawings by Nicolas de Staël , February-March 1958, n°40.

. Arles. Réattu Museum, Nicolas de Staël , June-September 1958, no. 89.

. Hanover. Kestner-Gesellschaft, December-January 1959.

. Hamburg. Kunstverein. Nicolas de Staël, February-March 1960.

. Turin. Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Nicolas de Staël , 1960, n°50 (illustrated p. 80).

. Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Maeght Foundation. Nicolas de Staël , 1972, n° 117 (illustrated p. 29).

. Paris. Galerie Jeanne Bucher, 123 drawings by Nicolas de Staël , April-May 1979, n° 13

. Paris. Grand Palais, Nicolas de Staël , May-August 1981, no. 132 (illustrated p. 155).

Origin :

. Suzanne Tézenas Collection, Paris (acquired directly from the artist in 1952).

. Anonymous sale, Camards & Associés, June 14, 2005, lot 107.

. Galerie Schmit, Paris.

A fascinating personality with a tragic destiny, Nicolas de Staël is a meteor in the constellation of post-war French artists. His suicide, his absolute quest for artistic truth, his refusal to oppose figurative art and abstract art, the permanent dialogue of his works with the poetry of René Char or the music of Pierre Boulez, his desire finally to be part of the lineage great masters, made him one of the most authentic, most singular and most endearing French artists of the second half of the 20th century.

Nicolas de Staël took up the colossal challenge of answering one of the great artistic questions of the 20th century: by enriching the great abstraction/figuration debate of his works and his thought, he attracted the attention of critics who recognized the immensity of his talent. “I am not opposing abstract painting to figurative painting. A painting should be both abstract and figurative. Abstract as a wall, figurative as a representation of a space . Nicolas de  Staël , 1952.

The work presented here, Landscape , is dated 1952, a pivotal year in the painter's career. It was in fact in this precise year that Staël renounced pure abstraction to turn to “abstraction-figuration”. This phrase applies entirely to our drawing, produced a few weeks after the famous Parc des Princes .

Our work was created during the painter's stay in the South, and the artist's discovery of the violence of light: " The light is simply dazzling here, much more than I expected." remember. I will make you things of the sea, of the beach, measuring the brightness until the end if all goes well, and things of nocturnal shadows. » (Letter to Jacques Dubourg, Le Lavandou, May 31, 1952).

The words of Jean-Louis Prat, a great connoisseur of Staël, who expressed himself thus on the occasion of an exhibition dedicated to the painter in 1995: “ Between an abstraction which has for it only the name and a representation which only imperfectly illustrates reality, Nicolas de Staël explored to the point of exhaustion the true domain of painting in its essence and its spirit. »

Gradually, Staël also abandoned Indian ink for felt-tip pen, which allowed him more immediacy, instantaneity. And this is indeed the object of his quest: the light of a moment, the immanence of an instant in a precise place, the infinity of a second.

Our drawing, by its dimensions, its technique, and above all its object: this ethereal space on the border of dream and reality, echoes that kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon, La Lune (Granville Donation) certainly produced on same day.

This drawing has been hung on the walls of the most prestigious museums and foundations in Europe. It can be found exhibited at the Kunsthalle in Bern, at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, at the Tate Gallery in London, and at the Grand-Palais in Paris. No retrospective devoted to the painter has been without this work as it represents the very art of Nicolas de Staël, this fusion between form and thought, between written poetry and poetic image, between abstraction and figuration.

What words, better than those of Daniel Dobbels, can express with more poetry the ineffable impression that this Landscape ? this unknown expanse, this gravitation between earth and sky: "Thing which leads to Everything, passes and eclipses... the lightning, invisible, has taken place: it is the extent in all points excessive... wider, more vast , more welcoming than any journey, than any vision, than any torn conscience – and than any negation. The wider the expanse, the finer the edge… the more incredible the listening stretched between two stars”

This work was owned by Suzanne Tézenas (1898.1991), the close friend whom Staël admired so much. It was during a concert organized at the home of her friend, who was running a salon in Paris, that Staël was struck by the “ color of sounds ”. He then turned to contemporary music: Pierre Boulez, Olivier Messiaen and jazz, in particular Sidney Bechet whom he admired and to whom he paid homage in Les Musiciens , preserved at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Other paintings are inspired by music such as L'Orchestre from 1953, a large canvas kept at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris and Les Indes galantes from 1952-1953 inspired by the eponymous opera-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau .

Let us end with the words of another giant of the last century: Romain Gary writing to Nicolas de Staël in February 1954 after an exhibition at Paul Rosenberg: “ You are the only modern painter who gives genius to the viewer. »