Lot 101: PAUL-ÉMILE BORDUAS 1905 - 1960

COMPOSITION
signed and dated l.r.: Borduas '56; titled and dated on a label on the reverse

59.7 by 49.5 cm. 23½ by 19½ in.

oil on canvas

François-Marc Gagnon, Paul-Émile Borduas, Ottawa, 1976, pp. 25-26

Waddington and Gorce Inc., Montreal

Private Collection, Montreal

Painted in 1956, Composition represents a moment of transition in Borduas' oeuvre. Unlike the hard shapes of the black and white paintings typically associated with his Paris period, he has deliberately rendered movement of pigment with his palette knife, creating a very active, though spare, composition. This work, like others from the spring and summer of 1956, is built out of expanses of white that would become Borduas' trademarks. In response to a letter from Jean-René Ostiguy in 1956, Borduas declared that his pictures had become whiter and whiter, more and more 'objective'.

In September of 1956, Borduas left Paris to spend time in Italy and Sicily. Shortly before his departure, the National Gallery of Canada purchased Seagull directly from his studio and Martha Jackson, a New York dealer, purchased 9 other canvases, of which this magnificent painting is likely one.