Marcel GROMAIRE (Noyelles-sur-Sambre, 1892 - Paris,... Lot n° 43

Nude leaning on an armchair 1928 oil on canvas signed and dated upper left 81 x 65 cm PROVENANCE Galerie Pierre, Paris Eminent private collection EXHIBITION Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune 1929, Gromaire: Forty Paintings (1926-1929), no. 38 BIBLIOGRAPHY Maurice Tahon, Marcel Gromaire, "L'amour de l'Art", no. 5, April 1929, reproduced p. 142 François Gromaire and Françoise Chibret-Plaussu, Marcel Gromaire, la vie et l'OEuvre, - Catalogue raisonné des peintures, Paris, 1993, n° 240, reproduced p. 108 This Nu accoudé au fauteuil rouge is the counterpart of the Deux nus au fauteuil rouge preserved in the Musée d'Art moderne de Paris. We find again the palette of Gromaire, in shades of ochre heightened with blue, as well as his monumental and so feminine figures with their waspish waists and wide thighs. In our painting, the body occupies the whole space of the picture. The armchair, cut off in the middle of the backrest, disappears into the background. The model's face is mute, without a mouth or nose, her hands crossed on the armrest, her legs folded over a narrow carpet, and she seems captive, subjugated by the artist's gaze. Marcel Gromaire (24 July 1892 in Noyelles-sur-Sambre - 11 April 1971 in Paris) His years spent as a film critic for the magazine Le Crapouillot can be seen in the singular framing of his subjects. By 1928, he was already a well-known painter. His regular participation in the Salon des Indépendants brought him into contact with Maurice Girardin. The collector bought all of his work from him for several years, most of which he bequeathed to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The Kunsthalle in Basel held its first retrospective exhibition of his work in 1933, followed by those in Paris in 1963 and 1980, and most recently at La Piscine in Roubaix in 2020.