On 15 November 2023, our Impressionist and Modern Art auction will celebrate women as both subjects and creators of art.

Kees Van Dongen's La femme renversée exalts woman as the subject of creation. In this canvas, painted in 1910, Kees Van Dongen renews the traditional genre of the reclining female nude. He offers us the back of his model to contemplate, opting for a tight framing that partially cuts off her head and surrounds the contours of her body with touches of bright colour, typical of Fauvism.


Lot 26
Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968)
La femme renversée, 1910
Oil on canvas
Signed lower left
53,9 x 64,9 cm
Estimation: 200 000 - 300 000 €

Three other key lots in the sale had women as their subject: a charming Petite tête by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a dazzling Femme au châle rouge by Moïse Kisling and a delicate Jeune femme assise sur ses talons by Aristide Maillol.


Lot 24
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Petite tête,1882
Oil on canvas mounted on canvas
Signed upper right 10.8 x 9.5 cm
Estimation: 20 000 - 30 000 €


Lot 40
Moïse Kisling (1891-1953)
Femme au châle rouge, 1923
Oil on canvas
Signed lower left
55 x 46 cm
Estimation: 30 000 - 50 000 €


Lot 25
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944)
Jeune femme assise sur ses talons
Bronze with brown patina
Signed with monogram and foundry stamp 'F. Godard Fondeur'.
17 cm
Estimation: 30 000 - 50 000 €

Hans Bellmer's Poupée (Torse) is a fantasised version of the female body. It was after attending a performance of Les Contes d'Hoffmann, featuring the doll Coppélia, that Bellmer created, around 1932-1933, a doll whose spherical joints enabled it to adopt the most extravagant positions. Our version, in naturally painted aluminium, was published in 1965 by the Parisian gallery owner André-François Petit.


Lot 46
Hans Bellmer (1902-1975)
La Poupée (Torse), 1935-1965
Painted aluminium
Original copper alloy base
Signed and numbered on eight Stamp 'Édition/Galerie A.F. Petit/Paris' under the base
63,5 x 30,7 x 30,5 cm

Two major paintings are by women: Scène orientale au fumeur de narguilé, by Victorine Meurent, best known for having posed for Manet's Olympia and Déjeuner sur l'herbe, and Vue de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon a_vec le fort Saint-André et la collégiale Notre-Dame_, by Mela Muter, a highly skilled colourist of Polish origin. Finally, a group of gouaches by Baya pays tribute to this engaging Algerian woman artist, currently exhibited at the Centre de la Vieille Charité (CVC) in Marseille..

Other works, often rediscovered, fall outside this theme but are no less worthy of interest, such as two paintings by Boudin, one of which depicts the Bassin du Commerce in Le Havre, a set of inks by Foujita, preparing the illustrations for Jean Cocteau's Dragon des Mers, and canvases by Utrillo, Vlaminck and Lebourg.


Lot 8
Victorine Meurent (1844-1927)
Scène orientaliste au fumeur de narguilé, 1876
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated '[18]76' lower left
25 x 16,5 cm
Estimation: 8 000 - 12 000 €


Lot 34
Mela Muter (1876-1967)
Vue de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon avec le fort Saint-André et la collégiale Notre-Dame
Tempera on canvas
Signed lower right
Annotated 'M[?]e Muter rue Velouterie 12' on the stretcher
74,5 x 85 cm
Estimation: 30 000 - 50 000 €


Lot 93
Baya (1931-1998)
L'île aux pieuvres, 1966
Gouache on paper
Signed and dated '[19]66' lower left
100 x 150 cm
Estimation: 15 000 – 20 000 €


Lot 21
Eugène Boudin (1824-1898)
Le Havre. Le Bassin du Commerce, 1884
Oil on panel Signed, dated '[18]84' and located 'Le Havre' lower left 32.5 x 41 cm
Estimation: 80 000 – 120 000 €

Click here to discover our Impressionist & Modern Art auction
Wednesday, November 15, 2023

For further information, please contact
Pierre-Alban Vinquant
+33 (0)1 47 45 08 20
vinquant@aguttes.com