Lot 343: MARÍA BLANCHARD (1881-1932) Naturaleza muerta cubista signé ‘M. BLANCHARD’

MARÍA BLANCHARD (1881-1932) Naturaleza muerta cubista signé ‘M. BLANCHARD’ (en bas à gauche) huile sur toile 92.4 x 64.8 cm. Peint vers 1918 signed ‘M. BLANCHARD’ (lower left) oil on canvas 36 3/8 x 25O in. Painted circa 1918

PROVENANCE Collection Fillioux, Cannes (avant les années 1950) . Collection particulière, Paris (par descendance) . Acquis auprès de celle-ci par le propriétaire actuel. In 1916 María Blanchard left her native Spain following a series of frustrated attempts to integrate the Avant-guarde art scene in Madrid. Returning to Paris she integrated an appreciably more stimulating environment of émigré artists, gathered paradoxically - around the Spanniards Juan Gris and Pablo Picasso. It was to Gris that Blanchard would become most strongly associated as she began to embark on her personal exploration of cubism. Gris introduced Blanchard to fellow artists, including Jacques Lipchitz and Jean Metzinger, as well as to the gallerist Léonce Rosenberg, who had recently founded L’Efort Moderne, his gallery dedicated to cubist art. In 1918 Blanchard joined Gris at his summer residence at Baulieu-Les- Loches and it was here that the two Spanish artists, accompanied by Lipchitz, worked side by side, often producing works depicting identical compositions. Indeed so similar were the paintings produced by Blanchard and Gris from this period that critics and contemporaries, including Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, often mistook one painter’s work for the other’s. The present painting is characteristic of Blanchard’s work from the Beaulieu period. Its large scale afords full expression of the artist’s mature cubist vocabulary: a strongly-constructed pyramidal composition is employed alongside Blanchard’s characteristic palette of muted Hispanic ochres and occasional areas of brighter colour. Presented for the frst time here in public, Naturaleza muerta cubista is an impressive testament to Blanchard’s contribution to the Spanish cubist aesthetic. Juan Gris, Guitare et clarinette, 1920. Kunstmuseum, Bâle. © tous droits réservés