Lot n° 238
Estimation :
1000 - 1200
EUR
Kees van Dongen: Place Pigalle, circa 1950 - Lot 238
Kees van Dongen: Place Pigalle, circa 1950
Original color lithograph on Johannot vellum, printed by the Mourlot studio for the Guilde Internationale de la Gravure, Geneva/Paris
Signed “van Dongen” in the lower margin on the plate; unnumbered; color registration marks present in all four margins
Dimensions: Sheet 38 × 56 cm (15 × 22 in.); Image 28 × 43 cm (11 × 16.9 in.)
Condition: Good. Sheet is clean, colors have not faded, and the paper edges are intact. Color registration marks as printed. Slight dusting in the center of the lower margin. Unframed.
References: Juffermans JL 23
Private collection, France
An omnibus bearing the sign “PLACE PIGALLE” occupies the center of the composition, its upper deck filled with passengers and its horse unhitched, while a second yellow omnibus and a flatbed wagon complete the background. In the foreground, passersby in Belle Époque attire cross the square: a woman in red accompanied by a child, a man in a light-colored suit, a coachman in a blue jacket holding a white horse, and, on the right, a woman in green seen from behind. Van Dongen renders the scene with loose lithographic pencil strokes over broad washes of gray and yellow, reserving bold color for four or five figures against a deliberately muted background. Born in Delfshaven in 1877, he moved to Paris in 1899, exhibited at the 1905 Salon d’Automne alongside Matisse, and became one of the leading Fauvists; his early years in Montmartre provided him with the subject matter to which he would return throughout his life. This plate belongs to a series of Parisian subjects created around 1950 for the Guilde Internationale de la Gravure and printed at Mourlot, of which *Place Pigalle, la nuit* (Juffermans JL 24) serves as the nocturnal counterpart. This print, on Johannot paper, unnumbered and retaining its registration marks, is outside the numbered edition of 290 on Arches paper and corresponds to a studio proof.
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