69

Francoise Gilot

(French, 1921-2023)

"Glory in the Sun"

gouache on paper
signed lower left, a "Vincent Mann Gallery" label en verso.
Glazed and framed.
29-1/2" x 22", framed 36-1/2" x 29"

  • Provenance: Vincent Mann Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana; Sold in these rooms, December 8, 2018, lot 902; Private collection, Houston, Texas.

    Notes: "You have to admit that most women who do something with their lives have been disliked by almost everyone." – Francoise Gilot

    Francoise Gilot spent her formative years at the epicenter of post-Occupation Paris' rich cultural and intellectual community, surrounded by such luminaries as Georges Braque, Joan Miro, Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Interested in art at a young age, she was simultaneously encouraged by her mother, who arranged for her daughter's secret art instruction with her own former teacher, and discouraged by her authoritarian father, who had decided on a career in law for his only child. Gilot dexterously managed both parental expectations; while attending the University of Paris (graduating with a degree in philosophy at the age of 17) she would often skip classes for art lessons. She later attended the Sorbonne, the British Institute in Paris and Cambridge University, and briefly enrolled in law school until dropping out to attend the Academie Julien. Her father was incensed, and their relationship became strained.

    In 1943, at the precociously young age of 23, Gilot had her first exhibition; shortly after, she met Pablo Picasso, with whom she would spend the next decade. The young woman inadvertently traded one tyrannical male figure with another, and her father essentially disowned her for the duration of her relationship with Picasso. Even though she found herself thrust into the amazingly creative maelstrom that was post-war Paris, she stated in her 1964 book Life with Picasso, that the bombastic artist resolved to undermine her and her artistic endeavors from the very start. When the young woman had her first solo exhibition at Galerie Louis Leiris in Paris in 1952, Picasso refused to attend. She left him the following year, becoming the only woman to escape the artist (relatively) unscathed.

    Throughout her career, Gilot's works reveal an emphasis on form and color, and she once stated that of all the artistic theories and stylistic approaches to which she was exposed, it was Matisse's attitude to color that she most appreciated and which, ultimately, most influenced her. Her mastery of the use of color is in evidence with the work presented here; the bold application of deep golds and grays against the orange background, in combination with the stark forms of the vase and flowers, make the central blossoms appear as if emerging from the paper. It is a sly homage to the series of sunflower paintings by Van Gogh, one of Matisse's influences.

    The recipient of numerous prestigious awards and honors, Gilot was made a Chevalier de Legion d'Honneur in 1990, being named an Officer in 2009 and was a Member of the National Academy of Design, New York. Her works are in the collections of such institutions as the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

    Reference: Christensen, Lauren. "In a New Book of Sketches, Francoise Gilot Clears Her Mind of the Past", New York Times, 27 August 2018. Web. 16 November 2018;" Francois Gilot – Obituary", New York Times, 6 June 2023.
  • Condition: **In overall good condition. Good, strong colors. Any surface anomalies appear to be hand of the artist. No visible signs of past restoration. Darker colors fluoresce under UV light but appear to be the hand of the artist. Not examined out of frame.
    Frame with scattered surface marks, nicks and abrasions.


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