A gift from the artist in November 1946

Canvas is not lined and the work remains in the original artist's frame. The work has recently been lightly cleaned. Under UV light there are a few small strokes of inpainting in the figure's collar and above his right shoulder. Overall the work is in excellent original condition.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Jean Hélion was another close member of Thomas and Diane Bouchard’s milieu and in the late 1940s he worked out of a studio in the same Lexington Avenue building as Miró, Léger and Bouchard himself. The present work features prominently in the Bouchard film Hélion: Un artiste au travail, for which the artist himself wrote the script and provided narration. The film opens on the New York skyline before cutting to Hélion’s studio and a sort of makeshift title card—the reverse of a canvas which the artist has signed and situated New York 1946. This is the same canvas that Joan Miró would later use to paint Sans titre(lot 332) and Hélion’s inscriptions remain.

The truly captivating film takes the viewer on a tour of Hélion’s studio, highlighting certain works and then plunging into the narrative of that painting or series. Close ups of Hélion’s figures are juxtaposed with scenes of urban culture in New York and his models walking through crowded streets. A shot of Hélion admiring the crumbling façade of a warehou🐽se building in midtown quickly cuts to a detail of an oil in which he was represented the same decay in the painted façade of a pictorial building. We are granted an incredible insight into the artist’s process, seeing ink drawi𝓡ngs, gouaches and the entire contents of his studio, in addition to his working process.

It becomes clear that Hélion’s particular preoccupation while in New York were the characters he observed on the c🎃ity streets; well-dressed men and women sauntering through life, exchanging glances, simultaneously blending into the horde of mass culture and being isolated islands of self-reflection. In very much the same way as Caillebotte had done some sixty years prior, Hélion delights in the fashion of the time, especially the ubiquitous men’s hats. The film itself takes pains to document the fabrics and patterns seen on all its characters, and shots of Hélion and his friends cut quickly to paintings of similarly dressed male figures before Hélion further asserts this connection by actually holding a painted face in front of his own (see fig. 1). Hélion is shown standing before the window of a New York milliner’s shop admiring the hats on display and making quick sketches (see fig. 2), before the camera quickly cuts back to his studio and the numerous studies and finished oils depicting male figures sporting these hats, including the present work (see fig. 3). The camera lingers on this painting, panning slowly across the entire surface. Hélion then proclaims: “A hat, for me, is like the guitar for the cubist painters: a feminine object, soft, rich in form and rich in meaning”.

Approximately halfway through the film, Hélion is shown holding an abstract canvas from the 1930s next to a large figural work from the 1940s New York series. Thomas Bouchard is heard off camera asking, “And what relationship is there ❀between this painting from 1944 and your abstraction from 1935?” Hélion replies, “They are the same thing, or 🔜nearly. Planes, volumes, spaces. Strong colors, fine tones, the rhythms of all nature. You can even, if you like, mix my figures and my abstractions.”