Description

Description: We offer a vibrant portrait of a North African woman by the French artist André Suréda. Gouache and pastel on blue toned paper, laid down to thin cardboard by the artist, 19 3/8" x 12 5/8". Signed in pastel at the bottom left with a monogram signature and dated ’19. A woman dressed in vivid blue, with a lively dotted headscarf and large earrings, holds red flowers in front of a grove of pink trees. This most excellent example of Suréda’s work shows his artistic evolution away from the tired memes of the Orientalists and into the sensibility of an anthropologically inclined Bonnard. André Suréda (1872-1930) was was one of the best Orientalist painters of his generation. He was from Spanish nobility (Goya painted his grandparents’ portrait in 1805) but was born in Versailles and studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. His paintings are remarkable windows into the private worlds of women and religious communities of North Africa and the Levant States. Item# FA00100.

Condition: There is a light 2" scratch at the lower left side. The bottom right hand margin of the paper has lifted off the backing board, a 2 1/2" portion of the deckled edge is crimped upwards, it ends with a 3/4" tear into the image near the wrist.