137. Nude on Sofa

The year 1924 would bring together in Paris two names that are representative today for Romanian art. The eighteenth-century building located at Place Dauphine number 12 thus housed in the attic the studio of the painter Theodor Pallady; while the rest of the building served as the residence of the banker Gheorghe Răut. The latter was the director of the Paris branch of the Marmorosch Blank bank and also an avid collector of art and decorative objects. His collection included numerous paintings, drawings and engravings signed by Theodor Pallady, which undoubtedly contributed, through the donation made by the banker in 1968, to the establishment of the museum in the Melik house in Bucharest, known today as the Theodor Pallady Museum. Place Dauphine would serve as inspiration for the Romanian painter for a rich series of paintings, but in 1940 Pallady would leave the Parisian studio and return to Romania. Gheorghe Răut would have the task of taking care of his friend's studio after his departure. The notation on the back of the work therefore comes to preserve the memory of this friendship, deepened in the French frenzy of the time. The diary kept by the artist allows us to enter his inner universe. We find here both sketches of works in oil, drawings or watercolors, as well as fragments of text that accompany the works and offer us details about their technical evolution. One of the pages of the diary takes us on an incursion into the genesis of the present work. We notice the same nude silhouette, captured in an almost identical pose, with slightly bent legs and arms raised above the head. If we scroll further through the diary, we identify a new sketch dedicated to the same subject, created in a very similar posture. However, in the present work, the artist intervenes with colored strokes, which he lays carefully around his muse. The couch and the walls thus gain a few chromatic notes that highlight the sensuality of the body sketched in black strokes. In the intimate atmosphere of the interiors, Pallady has captured the entire essence of the female character, which in his work became both inspiration and leitmotif.

References

BLAZIAN, H., "Pallady", State Publishing House for Literature and Art, Bucharest, 1957. ȘORBAN, Raoul, "Theodor Pallady", Meridian Publishing, Bucharest, 1975. "Pallady writing", Dana Crișan, Bucharest, 2009

Dimensions

width 55 cm, height 42 cm

Description

ulei și cărbune pe hârtie lipită pe carton, signed in the center right, in monogram, "TP"; noted on the verso, "Romanian painter who lived in Paris. Student of Gustav Moreau; To Ivella, in memory of Place Dauphine where the painter, Gheorghe Răut, lived"

PROVENANCE

the collection of the banker Gheorghe Răut (1890-1982).

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