Moïse KISLING (1891-1953) [POLAND/FRANCE] - Lot 15

Moïse KISLING (1891-1953) [POLAND/FRANCE] Still life, 1946 Oil on canvas. Signed, located Sanary and dated lower right. 46.5 x 55 cm (Restoration) -Certificate from Jean Kisling, the artist's son, dated April 19, 1993. Provenance: -Lévy-Bruhl Collection since 1950. -Private collection in Paris, descended from the Lévy-Bruhl family. Bibliography : Catalog Raisonné de Kisling, Tome III, by Jean Dutourd, Edition Kisling,Salmon, 1995, illustrated p 407 n° 13. Despite its apparent modernity, Kisling's "Still Life with Pipe" is a surprising but obvious commentary on Chardin's "La Tabatière" (Musée du Louvre): set on a rectangular entablature, the arrangement of objects stands out against a stone wall. It includes glassware, a pitcher and the fine white clay pipe set in an authoritative diagonal. The exotic shell also evokes 17th-century still lifes (e.g. the French painter Linard or Dutch still lifes). Kisling, a painter of Cubist origin, is interested in the tradition of the composed still life of the 17th and 18th centuries, an improbable assemblage of unrelated objects, a search for singular relationships of form, color and material. Its Dutch baptismal name "stilleven", literally translated as "still life", conveyed more effectively than still life, the poetic and philosophical vocation of the genre. Here, the transparent glass gourd, filled with the wine-colored liquid, contrasts with the rustic green earthen pitcher, while a fiery red emanates from the heart of the exotic shell. The foliage of a ficus elastica, the only living element, falls softly over the geometry of the objects. More than ever, Kisling demonstrates his singularity and virtuosity in contrasting forms and confronting materials. And, like his illustrious predecessors, he knows how to create a strange, poetic coherence.