Maurice Montet, Paris (1981)
Galerie Le Chanjour, Nice
Private Collection, Switzerland
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 7th February 2006, lot 65
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. There is a small patch and an area of resin on the reverse of the canvas, which have been applied to re-inforce the canvas and do not correspond to any damage. Apart from some very light horizontal and vertical stretcher marks, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although stronger and more varied in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work belongs to a group of paintings known as Transparences that Picabia executed in the late 1920s and early 1930s, deriving their name from multiple layers of overlapping imagery. In Lunis, three female faces and natural elements such as exotic birds, butterflies and foliage all combine into a dizzy celebration of the subconscious. These images, simultaneously transparent and opaque, are manipulated by Picabia in scale and orientation in such a way as to create a seemingly impenetrable allegory with characteristics of a dream or a mystic vision. In this series of works, Picabia often chose titles based on Biblical characters and Greco-Roman mythology, or names taken from the Atlas de poche des papillons de France, Suisse et Belgique by Paul Girod. This 🍃small volume, found in the artist's library, also explains the motif of butterflies in the present work.

 

Besides natural phenomena, Picabia's Transparences also draw their inspiration from Romanesque Frescos, Renaissance painting and Catalan art. Rich in cultural references, these paintings combine their varied images into compositions of great beauty and harmony. Following his experimentation with Dadaism and abstraction, in the 1920s Picabia turned away from the aesthetic of shock towards a kind of 'renaissance', creating figurative images of mysterious, contemplative beauty. At the time the present work was executed, Botticelli's painting was among his primary sources of inspiration, and his three Graces surrounded by nature (fig. 1) are certainly echoed in Lunis. Despite theও wealth of artistic, cultural and natural references, the meanings of the transparencies remain deliberately obscure and ambiguous, and their power lies in their evocative beauty and elegance of execution.