Bernard BOUTET DE MONVEL (1881-1949) - Lot 25

Lot n° 25
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Estimation :
3000 - 5000 EUR
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Result : 3 840EUR
Bernard BOUTET DE MONVEL (1881-1949) - Lot 25
Bernard BOUTET DE MONVEL (1881-1949) The Favorite Sport, ca. 1914 Watercolor and India ink on Whatman board Signed lower right Sheet size: 28.7 x 36 cm Subject: 21.7 x 28.5 cm With frame: 32 x 39.5 cm Presenting a Delaunay Belleville 45 - 50 HP chassis, 6 cylinders, type 1914 - 1915, this watercolor is an opportunity for Bernard Boutet de Monvel to pay a discreet tribute to his father, the painter and illustrator Maurice Boutet de Monvel, who has just passed away. To the right of his composition, he places a group of children, each of whose figures is copied literally from one of the late artist's compositions. In the foreground, Jacqueline in a white bonnet, her image inverted, and Fanchon, cut off by the watercolor framing, are two emblematic figures from Nos enfants, which Maurice Boutet de Monvel published with Anatole France in 1887. As for the two boys, both were sketched in watercolor by this much-admired father, notably on the frontispiece of the deluxe edition of Ferdinand Fabre's Xavière, which Maurice Boutet de Monvel illustrated for Boussod, Valadon Cie in 1890. In the background of our watercolor, the Saint-Fiacre church in Chevrainvilliers, already painted in oils by Bernard Boutet de Monvel a few years earlier, when his father had retired to Nemours. Beautifully fresh colors. Discreet, scattered spotting. At the end of 1913, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, painter and illustrator of elegance, "sportmen and dandies" - along with his brother Roger, the artist was one of the founding members of the Gazette du Bon Ton - was commissioned by Delaunay Belleville, a manufacturer of luxury automobile chassis, to produce four major watercolor advertisements to illustrate their 1914 catalog. These four watercolors, reproduced by Draeger and accompanied by a text by Roger Boutet de Monvel, were intended, through the modernity of their line and the clarity of their composition, to convey all the majesty and chic of automobiles prized by King Edward VII, Tsar Nicholas II and President Roosevelt alike. We would like to thank Mr. Stéphane-Jacques Addade, President of the European Chamber of Art Experts and expert in the work of Bernard Boutet de Monvel, for confirming the authenticity of this work.
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