André BAUCHANT (1873-1958) Lot n° 42

Les amoureux surpris, 1927 Oil on canvas Signed and dated "1927" twice lower right Oil on canvas, signed and dated "1927" twice lower right 66,5 x 104 cm - 26 1/8 x 41 in. A certificate from Madame Dina Vierny, dated 24 June 1981, will be given to the buyer. PROVENANCE Le Corbusier Collection (handwritten label "Bauchant/Les amoureux/surpris/ Le Corbusier/17" on the back of the canvas and mention "provenant de l'ancienne Collection de Le Corbusier' on the certificate of Dina Vierny) Private collection, France (by descent) EXHIBITION Paris, Galerie Charpentier, André Bauchant, 1949, n°43 (reproduced in black and white in the booklet) "It was at the age of forty-five that you began an unexpected career: you became a painter. I was your first buyer and remained the only one for the first seven years." Le Corbusier, 31 October 1949, quoted in André Bauchant, cat. expo., Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1949, n. p. "In a forest house, where [André Bauchant] retired with his wife, he set to work, passionately. In 1921, he sent sixteen monumental paintings to the Salon d'Automne: flower paintings, landscapes, genre scenes, monumental compositions inspired by history, mythology and the Holy Scriptures; he was awarded nine of them, and was named a member of the Society. Le Corbusier devoted an article to him in the Esprit Nouveau and was his first buyer. Jeanne Bucher came next, then Diaghilew, who commissioned the costumes and sets for Apollon Musagète; Serge Lifar, and others. André Bauchant, nevertheless, had to go through difficult years. For a long time, his singular genius captivated only a small number of admirers. But the circle, from year to year, grew larger. There was, in 1937, the exhibition of the Popular Masters of Reality, organized in Paris by the Museum of Grenoble. There were the most famous collectors, and the Museums of Europe and America. Finally, there is the present exhibition, to definitively consecrate a glory in the highest degree deserved. Original visionary, exquisite and powerful colorist, master of a drawing as personal as it is expressive, of a craft unequalled since the ancient frescoists, André Bauchant, as much in terms of conception as in terms of sovereign composition and execution, is a great painter." Maximilien Gauthier, "La merveilleuse histoire d'André Bauchant", in André Bauchant, cat. expo., Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1949, n. p.