Roger de la Fresnaye (FRENCH 1885-1925)

Lot description

ROGER DE LA FRESNAYE (FRENCH 1885-1925) COMPOSITION WITH THREE MEN SEATED AT A TABLE, c.1913 signed (lower right), watercolour and crayon on paper 22.7cm x 16cm (9in x 6 ¼in), unframed The Estate of Rene Gimpel (1881-1945);Gimpel Fils, London. La Fresnaye was born in Le Mans where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed. The La Fresnayes were an aristrocratic family whose ancestral home, the Chateau de la Fresnaye, is in Falaise. His education was classically based, and was followed from 1903 to 1904 by studies at the Academie Julian in Paris, and from 1904 to 1908 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. From 1908 he studied at the Academie Ranson under Maurice Denis and Paul Serusier, whose joint influence is evident in early works such as Woman with Chrysanthemums, 1909.This demonstrates the dreamlike symbolist ambience and stylistic character of work by the Les Nabis group. In 1909 Fresnaye travelled to Munich where he encountered the German Expressionists, and then, in 1911, to northern Italy where he began to introduce more cuboid and abstract elements into his own painting. This work relates to the major paintings called ‘La Conquete de l’air, 1913’, now in the collections of MoMA, New York and the Musee d’art moderne de Troyes, featuring figures seated around a table with a French flag in the background. This study is particularly close to the version now in Troyes, featuring three figures. The work at MoMA has been described by G. Seligman as ‘a complete expression of the talent and the intent of the artist’. De la Fresnaye was one of the most important and innovative artists working in Paris in the wake of Cubism, his works combining a rigorous understanding of the movement with a decorative lightness, inspired by Sonia Delaunay. His life with cut tragically short due to ill health in 1925.