?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
GEORGES KARS Figures on a Promenade, Monte Carlo.
Gouache, crayon and pen and ink on smooth cream wove paper, 1923. 360x280 mm; 14 1/4x11 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed "Monte Carlo" in ink, lower left recto.
Kars (1882-1945), born Jirí Karpeles to parents of German origin on the outskirts of Prague, was a Czech artist associated with the School of Paris and a member of the circle of Montparnasse. He studied in Prague and, in 1899, at the Munich Academy, where he became friends with Paul Klee, Jules Pascin and Franz von Stuck. He settled in Paris in 1908, befriending Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo and Marc Chagall, while continuing to work with Pascin.
Kars frequently exhibited his work at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Tuileries in Paris. In 1939, when the Nazis eventually entered Paris, he took refuge in Lyon, which was not yet occupied, and continued to exhibit, producing a large body of work depicting refugees seeking shelter during this time. He committed suicide in 1945, overwhelmed with melancholy following the fate of his family and friends in and around Prague during World War II.
