GEORGES SEURAT Torse nu, croquis de bras et de jambes.
Pencil on cream wove paper on card, 1879-80. 265x350 mm; 10 1/2x13 7/8 inches. With the artist Paul Signac's initials in red crayon, verso.
Published in C.M. de Hauke, Seurat et son oeuvre, Paris, 1961, catalogue number 329 (illustrated).
Ex-collection the artist's brother Émile Seurat, Paris; Félix Fénéon, Paris; Louis Vauxcelles, Paris; purchased Sotheby's, London, October 21, 1998, sale 8643, lot 258, by the current owner, with a copy of the original invoice.
Fénéon (1861-1944) and Vauxcelles (1870-1943) were both major art critics in Paris, coining the accepted terms "Neo-Impressionism" and "Cubism" respectively. Fénéon championed the Neo-Impressionists, including Seurat (1859-1891) and Signac (1863-1935), resulting in Signac's iconic portait of the critic, now at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The artist Signac (see lots 111-114) was Seurat's artistic partner, as founding members in 1884 of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, championing their pointilist style, as well as his close friend and heir when Seurat died early, likely from diptheria, in 1891.
