Apr 21, 2005 - Sale 2039

Sale 2039 - Lot 24

Price Realized: $ 4,140
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
JEAN GABRIEL DOMERGUE (1889-1962) BAL DE LA COUTURE PARISIENNE. 1921.
63x31 inches. J. E. Goossens, Lille.
Condition B+: repaired tears and creases in margins; horizontal folds.
Domergue dedicated his working life to the mundane and elegant worlds of French society. Dividing his time between Paris, Deauville and the Riviera, he designed works for performers and fashion balls. He spent his later years endlessly painting the same blonde girl, and his kitschy paintings were exclusively sold at the only art gallery on the Champs-Elysees. As this work was for one of Paris's major charity balls, it had to conform to a certain conventional structure, so it is an elongated format with the bottom half dedicated to the lengthy text. The image, however, is an elegant beauty, dressed to impress, in what most likely is a haute couture creation by one of the designers listed on the poster.