Gouache on paper, 1947. 320x400 mm; 12 5/8x15 7/8 inches. Signed in gouache, upper right recto. Ex-collection Claude Bernard, Paris; Private Collection, Paris; Larry Aldrich, Connecticut; Achim Moeller, New York; Private Collection, London; Leslie Waddington, Waddington Galleries, London, with their label on the frame back; and Private Collection, St. Louis. Exhibited "Jean Dubuffet," Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, December 16, 1960-February 25, 1961, catalogue number 258. Published in Max Loreau, Catalogue des Travuax de Jean Dubuffet, Lausanne, 1967, fasicule 4, page 29, no. 26. First Exhibited "Deuxiéme Voyâge au Sahara (El Goléa)," Paris, November 1947-April 1948.
The artist made several trips to Algeria and the Sahara in the late 1940s and spent 6 months with the Bédouin in the "El Goléa." The current work is from a series of the "Clowns du Desert," inspired by his experiences with the people of the Sahara.
