Jean DUBUFFET (1901-1985) - Lot 55

Jean DUBUFFET (1901-1985) Dhôtel aux trois mèches, 1947 Charcoal, black stone and rubbing Signed lower right and dated Titled upper right 37.5 x 31.2 cm. Exhibition: Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, "Paris-Paris", May 26 to November 2, 1981, no. 196. Bibliography: Catalog des travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Fascicule III, no. 79 p. 59 (wrong date) In 1946, Dubuffet abandoned the portrait, not because he disdained it, but because he did not yet see all its possibilities. possibilities. He returned to it by chance over lunch at Florence Gould's, who urged him to paint a portrait of Léautaud, a writer she passionately admired. Dubuffet, who at the time was populating his works with impersonal, elemental representations, hesitated, then accepted the idea of personalizing his works. accepted the idea of personalizing his figures, without any concern for realism. Dubuffet's portraits avoid a treatment of detail, striving to fix faces without fixing features, to individualize without describing exactly. The resemblance to the figures portrayed is slight, but the complicity with the model is legible and brings out the essential. (Source: Max Loreau).