601
Francis Picabia (French, 1879-1953)
St. Tropez, c. 1937-1939
Signed “Francis Picabia” l.l., inscribed “St.
Tropez” l.r.
Oil on canvas, 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 61.0 cm),
framed.
Condition: Mounted to aluminum panel,
retouch, alligatoring, craquelure.
Provenance: A private Massachusetts
collection by family descent.
N.B. The present, enigmatic work dates to
Picabia’s time in the south of France, which
was an experimental and highly innovative
period spanning nearly two decades.
By 1925, Picabia felt that the Dada movement
no longer packed the anti-establishment
punch that it once had, and he left Paris
for Mougins, near Cannes, where he would
remain until 1945. Picabia found a renewed
vigor on the Côte d’Azur. In a letter dated
February 27, 1926 to the French fashion
designer Jacques Doucet, he notes, “This
country which seems...to make some lazy,
stimulates me to work...I have more and more
pleasure in the resumption of painting.”^1
Picabia experimented with several bodies of
work in Mougins through 1927—including
Espagnoles (depicting archetypal Spanish
women), Les monstres (depicting grotesque
figures in heavy black outlines) and mixed-
media collages—before creating one of
his most important series known as Les
Transparences.^2 Les Transparences, which
he developed through the early 1930s,
comprised of superimposed classical,
Romanesque and Renaissance silhouettes
over figures and landscapes, and the effect
was described by Marcel Duchamp as an
impression of “the third dimension without the
aid of perspective.”^3In the mid- to late 1930s, Picabia often
referenced and juxtaposed the motifs and
methods developed in these earlier bodies
of work, some of which he overpainted.^4 A
notable example of a reworked amalgamation
is Le Beau Charcutier [The Handsome
Pork-Butcher] in the Tate Modern permanent
collection. The work was first conceived ca.
1924-6 as a mixed-media collage painting
of a man, thought by some to be of the
French politician Raymond Poincaré, and
re-conceived ca. 1929-35 with the profile of
a glamorous woman superimposed over the
male portrait.^5While scholarship on the present work is in
its nascent stage, infrared reflectography
(IRR) reveals the existence of a previous
composition depicting a bust in profile of at
least one figure (facing right), superimposed
over a repetitive solar or floral motif in the
background, with a signature reading “Francis
Picabia” at lower center.The work is registered as no. 3299 with the
Comité Picabia, and will be included in their
forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné de l’Oeuvre
de Francis Picabia. A photo-certificate
from the Comité Picabia accompanies the
lot, and we wish to thank them for their
kind assistance. A copy of the IRR report,
conducted by the Worcester Art Museum
Conservation Department, Worcester,
Massachusetts, with recommendations
for further imaging and analysis, also
accompanies the lot.- William A. Camfield, Francis Picabia: His Art, Life and Times
(Princeton University Press, 1979), p. 216. - Ibid., 218-219.
- http://www.picabia.com/biograph/bio_ev_p6.htm
- Marianne Heinz, “Picabia, Francis,” Grove Art Online, Oxford Art
Online, Oxford University Press, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/
subscriber/article/grove/art/T067302 - Jennifer Mundy, “Francis Picabia: The Handsome Pork-Butcher c.
1924-6, c.1929-35,” Tate Gallery, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/
picabia-the-handsome-pork-butcher-t07108/text-summary
$50,000-70,000
206 Additional information and photos at http://www.skinnerinc.com
Infrared reflectogram (IRR) assembled from 96 detail images taken
with a Sensors SU640DV-1.7RT high-resolution infrared camera.
Photo courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum Conservation Department.