Estimate: $18,000 - $25,000
Auction: October 29, 2019 12:00:00 PM EDT
Signed bottom center left, inscribed 'revoir les visages les mains' along the right vertical edge, gouache on paper.
21 1/2 x 30 3/8 in. (52.1 x 77.2cm)
Unframed
Provenance: The Artist.
Private Collection (acquired directly from the above).
By family descent.
Private Collection.
note:
This lot is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Suleyman Ustunel of les Amis de Fikret Moualla and will also be included in Volume II of the catalogue raisonné of Fikret Moualla currently being prepared by Marc Ottavi and Kerem Topuz.
Fikret Mualla was born in Istanbul, Turkey, but spent much of his life in Western Europe, studying first in Germany and Switzerland before moving to Paris to paint. Mualla lived in France for close to 30 years, capturing the daily life there, in cafés and the carousing nightlife in the country's capital in his bright, Fauvist paintings. Though his work is generally cheerful and lively, inspired by the Bohemian circle to which he belonged, Mualla's life was punctuated by bouts of depression and alcoholism, and the artist spent several turns in mental institutions. His forceful swings in mood are evidenced in his passionately produced works, full of a lightness and vibrancy that belie the personal complications that haunted him throughout his life. Working quickly in his preferred medium of gouache, he established his direct composition style. In the present scene of fishermen at market, Mualla's vibrant, colorful rendition of Parisian life is fully realized.