20th Century European Painting & Sculpture
20th Century European Painting & Sculpture
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Alan Durman “Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden” c. 1945
ALAN DURMAN (1905-1963) UK
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden c. 1945
Oil on aluminum panel on a wood structure, elaborately carved gilt wood frame
Painting: H: 23 1/4” x W: 30 3/16”
Framed: H: 28 3/4” x W: 35 9/16”
Alan Durman was born in Saltford, England and worked as a local muralist where his most important work is on display at the Saltford Community Hall. The largest mural of the three celebrates the community and shows the indigenous landscape as a backdrop to dancing and frolicking locals. The other two paintings show a view across Kelston village to Kelston Round Hill, a significant local landmark and in the other a verdant view featuring an ancient forest across to the River Avon. In the late 1930’s and 40’s Durman directed his talent as an illustrator and designed many posters. He created travel related posters for British Railways (BR) and the British Transport Commission (BTC) which featured stylish and active young families at sea side resorts.
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Andree Flamant-Ducany-Gide / Valsuani Foundry French Cubist bronze “African” mask sculpture 20th Century
ANDREE FLAMANT-DUCANY-GIDE (1882-1970) France
VALSUANI FONDEUR (1899-1981) Paris, FranceCubist mask sculpture 20th Century
Cast bronze with rich brown-black patina (possibly cast at a later date by the Valsuani Foundry)
Marks: G. Flamant, 2/8 C. Valsuani Cire Perdue (signed on chin)
H: 11” x W: 7” x D: 5 ½”;
On stand: H: 18 ½”Price: $35,000
ANDREE FLAMANT-DUCANY-GIDE
Flamant-Gide was born in Nimes, France on January 2nd, 1892 and died on March 28th 1970. She was both a painter and sculptor and exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artists Francais beginning in 1923. She sculpted in an angular Cubist style influenced by African Art and was a fellow artist of Joseph Csaky, Gustave Miklos, Jacques Lipchitz and Henri Laurens who were considered the leading Art Deco sculptors in Paris during the 1920’s.CUBISM
Cubism drew its influence from: Cezanne’s structural analysis in his oil landscapes, e.g. ‘La Montagne Sainte Victorie’ c.1887; Gauguin’s figurative landscapes, e.g. ‘Haymaking’ 1889; and African tribal Art such as Gabon masks. European artists were greatly influenced by African and Oceanic Art during the late 1890s and early 1900s. African sculpture, with its bold shapes and lines, had a great impact on the development of Cubism. Maurice de Vlaminck became a keen admirer and collector of African masks after seeing them in a Paris anthropological museum. He purchased similar masks and his excitement for these works displaying bold primitive expressions and simplistic design filtered through to Matisse, Derain, Gris and Picasso, who all became collectors as well. By the 1920s African art exhibitions were common in Paris and other cities throughout Europe.
Cubist sculpture brought the simplified shapes of Cubist painting together with the three-dimensional modeling medium of sculpture. The first Cubist sculpture, which could be properly deemed as such was made by Picasso in 1909 and was titled ‘Head of a Woman’. However Picasso did experiment with sculptural forms as early as 1907 when he found himself fascinated and deeply influenced by African masks. Cubist sculpture was mostly reminiscent of Analytical Cubism in its stripping away of illusionist details to reveal the fundamental form contained in each individual subject, be it human or still-life.VALSUANI FOUNDRY
The Valsuani foundry was started by the brothers Claude and Attilio Valsuani who learned the foundry trade while employed at the Hebrard foundry. While working for Hebrard, Claude Valsuani showed great promise as a finisher and eventually worked his way up to become the Technical Director of the Hebrard foundry. In 1899 Claude Valsuani started his own foundry in Chatillon, casting mostly small works for various artists primarily using the lost wax technique of casting (cire perdue). In 1905 he moved his foundry to 74 Rue des Plantes in Paris. Among the famous sculptors who had the Valsuani foundry cast their works were: Renoir, Picasso, Despiau, Paul Troubetzkoy, Matisse, and Gaugin. Claude Valsuani died in 1923 in his native Italy but his son, Marcele then took over the foundry and continued the tradition of producing extremely fine bronzes until the 1970’s. -
Alfred Meyer-Bernburg, Bacchus, Oil on board, 1924
ALFRED MEYER-BERNBURG (1872-?) Berlin & Munich, Germany
Bacchus 1924
Oil on board
Signed: Alfred Meyer-Bernburg MCNN 1924 (lower right on the canvas)
Image: H: 16” x W: 11”
Framed: H: 23 1/4” x W: 18 3/8”Price: $39,000
Alfred Meyer-Bernburg was born in Bernburg, Germany on July 27th, 1872. He studied at the Akademie in Berlin from 1891-92 and later at the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste in Munich from 1897-1904. Meyer-Bernburg was a member of the Münchner Künstlergruppe (MKG).
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Andre Vincent Becquerel Arabian Horse bronze sculpture c. 1930
ANDRE VINCENT BECQUEREL (1893-1981) France
Arabian Horse sculpture c. 1930
Bronze with overall rich green/brown patina with intricate sculpting and details, black Belgian marble plinth base
Signed: A. Becquerel (inscribed in the bronze)
H: 12” x W: 21” x D: 6”
Price: $27,500
Andre Vincent Becquerel was born in St. Andre-Farivilliers. He studied at the l’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris under Hector Lemaire and Prosper Lecourtier. He specialized in fine animal sculpture and regularly exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais from 1914 to 1922. Becquerel worked for the Editeur Parisiens Edmond Etling in Paris and created a monumental sculpture in patinated plaster for the “Pavillon international” at the Exposition Internationale in Paris in 1937.
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Roger Georges Andre Duval, “La Chambré” Oil on canvas 1924
ROGER GEORGES ANDRÈ DUVAL (1901-?) Meudon (Seine-et-Oise), France
La Chambré 1924
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated: ROGER DUVAL XXIV(lower left)
Exhbited: Paris, Salon des Indépendants, 1926, no. 1122
For more information see: Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Vol. 4, E. Bénézit (Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1976).
Painting: H: 23 2/3” x W: 36 1/5”
Framed: H: 35” x 47 5/8”
Roger Duval painted in a modernist figurative style and beginning in 1920 regularly exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. In 1925 he was awarded a prize by Paul Poiret for a painting entitled Conversation and again in 1926 for another painting entitled Bal Musette. Also in 1926, La Chambrée (1924) was exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants. By 1928 Duval’s technique had evolved into a moderninst/cubist style and a group of his paintings were featured in an Exposition of Painting and Sculpture in Boston, MA.
It is interesting to note Duval’s shared vision with Picasso in their depiction of peasant figures in repose. Their full-bodied, voluptuous and sensual forms illustrate both artists’ sculptural approach to painting in the early 1920s. However by the mid-1920s Duval and Picasso’s painting styles evolved from these softer, rounded shapes into more angular, abstracted forms.