Alexandre ROUBTZOFF (Saint Petersburg, 1884 -... Lot 93

Alexandre ROUBTZOFF (Saint Petersburg, 1884 - Tunis, 1949) Portrait of Marie Madeleine Leroy (1946) Oil on canvas, signed, dated and localized lower right "La Marsa 1946 / A.Roubtzoff". Framed. H. 130 x L. 158.5 cm. Provenance - Commissioned by Marie Madeleine Leroy from the artist or gift from the artist to the subject. - Then passed on to the family of Dr. Éloi Baysse, colonization physician in Tunisia (appointed in 1934), also a friend and physician of the artist in Tunisia. - Then by descent. History Marie Madeleine Leroy was the second wife of Charles Mast (1889-1977), a French Major General whose time in Tunisia marked a significant chapter in his career, appointed in 1943 by Charles de Gaulle as Resident General of Tunisia after playing a decisive role in the liberation of North Africa, a position he held until February 1947. While in office, General Mast commissioned Alexandre Roubtzoff in 1945 to design a stamp featuring the Sidi Mahrez mosque, as a reward for the fighters. Marie Madeleine Leroy and Charles Mast married on May 14, 1935 in Yokohama, Japan. She was a close friend of Antoine de Saint Exupéry. A native of Lorraine, between 1943 and 1947 she devoted herself to providing assistance to Allied fighting units. A history buff, she also published "Le masque de Fer une solution révolutionnaire" in 1974, under the name Marie-Madeleine Mast. Her superb, luminous portrait was painted in 1946 at the Dar El Kamila palace in La Marsa, the official residence of the French ambassador to Tunisia. The artist depicts her seated on the fountain in the palace patio, a year before the Mast couple returned to France. Given the size of the ableau, it seems quite likely that Marie Madeleine Leroy was unable to have the work repatriated to France, and the artist then gave it to her friend and physician, Éloi Baysse. Literature - Patrick Dubreucq "Alexandre Roubtzoff, une vie en Tunisie", ACR édition, 1996. - Alya Hamza "Alexandre Roubtzoff, peintre tunisien", Les Éditions de la Méditerranée, 1994. Expert: Maxime Charron Collection of unpublished works by Alexandre Roubtzoff from Dr. Éloi Baysse, the artist's friend and physician in Tunisia. "I only came to Tunisia for a few days, and I stayed there for the rest of my life", wrote the artist in his memoirs. Alexander Roubtzoff, born in St. Petersburg on January 24, 1884, trained in the painting department of the Imperial Academy of Arts under the tutelage of Yan Frantsevich Tsionglinsky (1858-1912), a key figure in his training since Tsionglinsky was considered one of the first Russian Impressionists and was also a great traveler and lover of exotic countries. Between 1907 and 1912, Roubtzoff travelled extensively on a scholarship, taking him to Austria, Germany, Italy and Morocco, where he was unable to establish himself permanently because of the Moroccan campaign, prompting him to travel to Tunisia and settle there in 1914. The First World War prevented him from returning to Russia, and Roubtzoff took up residence in Tunis in an apartment-studio at 33 rue Al Djazira. The October Revolution of 1917 marked a major turning point in the artist's life; he severed ties with his native country, took French nationality and presented himself as "a Frenchman born in St. Petersburg". This new horizon guided him towards plein-air painting, imbued with the warmth of the Sahara sands and the contrasts of the Atlas mountains. The magic of Tunisian light and its unique nuances, as well as street scenes and depictions of Arab life, inspired Roubtzoff throughout his life, creating over 3,000 works of great diversity. The collection of completely new works presented in this sale is of an exclusive nature. Whether portraits or landscapes, these paintings were hitherto unknown to reference books and historians. According to family tradition, all these works originally came from the collection of Éloi Baysse, a doctor from the Cahors region, appointed in 1934 as colonization doctor in Tunisia, which explains why all the works are dated between 1935 and 1948. In his diary, Roubtzoff wrote in 1940: "It's always Dr. Baysse who takes me around the region (...)". This previously unpublished set shows the range of subjects Roubtzoff appreciated, including two portraits of major importance: the portrait of Arbia (1941) and the portrait of Marie Madeleine Leroy (1946). The portrait of