Jean Paulhan, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)

Daniel Varenne, Paris 

Francey and Dr Martin L. Gecht, Chicago 

Sale: Christie’s, New York, Property from the Collection of Francey and Dr Martin L. Gecht, 3 May 2006, Lot 175 

Acquired directlyꦯ from the above by the present owner&nbsꦆp;

Geneva, Galerie Krugier, Jean Paulhan et ses environs, 1967, n.p., no. 57, illustrated

New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jean Dubuffet: A Retrospective, 1973, p. 182, no. 149, illustrated

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Jean Dubuffet, 1973, p. 175, no. 189

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Jean Paulhan à travers ses peintres, 1974, no. 519 

Chicago, The University of Chicago, The David and Alfred Smart Gallery; and St. Louis, Washington University Gallery of Art, Jean Dubuffet: Forty Years of His Art, 1984-85, p. 37, no. 4, illustrated  

Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Graphic Modernism: Selections from the Francey and Dr Martin L. Gecht Collection, 2003-04, p. 57, no. 47, illustrated in colour

Max Loreau, Catalogue des Traveaux de Jean Dubuffet, fasc. I: Marionnettes de la ville et de la campagne, Paris 1966, p. 162, no. 305, illustrated

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonanity is deeper and richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The sheet is attached verso to the backing board in several places. There are artist's pinholes in all four corners.
"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."

 “To Jean Paulhan. May this fat girl keep you in your usual good humour when it comes to loving well people who are so very good and so very nice. And pinned to the wall of your present makeshift abode, may she be a permanent indication of my deep friendship.” 

Jean Dubuffet, 'Dedication to Jean Paulh💞an', as inscribed on the present work.

Conveying an exuberant sense of energy and a pure, irrepressible joy, Femme assise au fauteuil was created in 1944, a seminal year within Jean Dubuffet’s ground-breaking career. It was in October of that year that Dubuffet’s first solo show took place at the Galerie René Drouin in Paris, an exhibition that succeeded in exposing the artist’s practice to a wider cultural and critical consciousness. A significant work in terms of Dubuffet’s stylistic development, Femme assise au fauteuil anticipates the series of 170 major portraits, completed between 1945 and 1947, of artists, writers and other cultural figures that Dubuffet associated with during this period. Leading creative personages of the day immortalised by the artist included Michael Tap💝ié, Henri Michaux and Jean Fautrier as well as Jean Paulhan, to whom the present work is dedicated: indeed, Paulhan frequently served as a subject for Dubuffet, being painted around twenty-eight times by the artist during this period. The importance of the present work is further attested to by its distinguished exhibition history, having been shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais in Paris in 1973, at Washington and Chicago Universities (1984-85) and at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004-05.

Within Femme assise au fauteuil a woman perches excitedly upon a somewhat spindly wooden chair, with arms outstretched in welcome or delight as though engaging gleefully with the viewer. The present work serves as a record of a close friendship as well as a pioneering creative exercise. The dedication – delineated in a kaleidoscopic array of bright colours along the right hand side of the image – is inscribed in French to Jean Paulhan in the following affectionate terms: “To Jean Paulhan. May this fat girl keep you in your usual good humour when it comes to loving well people who are so very good and so very nice. And pinned to the wall of your present makeshift abode, may she be a permanent indication of my deep friendship”. Paulhan was a highly respected French writer and critic who became director of the legendary Parisian publication, Nouvelle Revue Française, in 1925, a post he held for fifteen years, as well as being a member of the Academie Française. Paulhan had first encountered Dubuffet’s work in 1943, becoming a key supporter as well as a close friend over the following years. The warmth of the dedication within the presentꦗ work reveals the depth of Dubuffet’s regard for Paulhan, standing as a powerful testimony to a friendship that was to prove significant for both men in terms of their creative development.

Alongside other artists active in Paris in the decade following the end of the Second World War, in particular Wols and Fautrier, Dubuffet championed the emerging movements of Art Brut and Art Autre, embracing a style which utilised sometimes rudimentary materials and rough textures far removed from the smooth finish of traditional painting. In his quest to forge an entirely innovative artistic language, one that was unconnected to conventional Western notions of beauty, Dubuffet was especially drawn to so-called ‘primitive’ art as well as that produced by children and sufferers of mental illness. The artist believed that these forms of creative effort were closer to the truth of the subliminal unconscious, resulting in a more realistic artistic language devoid of unnecessary aesthetic ornamentation. Dubuffet stated his belief served a “single function: inventiveness, and not the chameleon function or the ape function that are constants of cultural art” (Jean Dubuffet quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, Galerie Boulakia, Jean Dubuffet, 2007, p. 6). In its simplified yet authoritative composition, Femme assise au fauteuil reflects the inspiration of earlier and ‘outsider’ art forms whilst echoing the everyday life subject matter of seventeenth-century genre painting and the Dutch Golden age. A gloriously joyful celebration of friendship, Femme assise au fauteuil stands as a superb encapsulation of Dubuffet’s key creative interests and concerns and deserves to be conside꧒red as an importan🐟t work on paper from this incisive moment in the artist’s career.