GASTON LACHAISE (1882 1935) Female Nude Seen from Rear

Sale 2678 - Lot 55

Price Realized: $ 1,000

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

GASTON LACHAISE (1882-1935)
Female Nude Seen from Rear.

Black crayon and pencil on Asian paper, circa 1920. 261x180 mm; 10⅜x7 inches. Signed twice in pencil and crayon, lower right.

Provenance
Private collection, New York, before 1985.
Private collection, New Jersey.

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Additional Details

This delightful drawing by Gaston Lachaise was carried out on a sheet of handmade paper acquired in New York's Chinatown, not far from his studio. It is one of a number of his variations on the theme of a nude woman seen from the rear who is ascending stairs, or, as in the present case, climbing onto a bed. In these drawings, the figure's pose is playfully reduced to the essential, sometimes quasi-geometrical, forms. The figure type— featuring a compact torso and comparatively long legs that lend a sense of buoyancy to the woman's body— is that of his wife and muse, Isabel Duteau (also spelled Dutaud). Dating Lachaise's drawings is often difficult, as he regularly reprised favorite motifs. With this caveat, the present drawing compares to others that can confidently be dated to about 1920; an example is illustrated in San Bernardino California State College, The Art Gallery, Gaston Lachaise: Sculpture and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, San Bernardino, California, 1980, page 14, figure 15.

Virginia Budny, author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné sponsored by the Lachaise Foundation.