Catalog: Fine Art: Mixed Media (5)

Charles George DuFresne, French, 1876-1938, The Family, Abstract Gouache, gouache and ink on heavy watercolor paper. Signed clearly lower right.

Louis Marcoussis (Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markus) Warsaw,Poland,1878-1941. In 1901 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts of Cracow to study painting with Jan Crzegorz Stanislawski. In 1903 Markus moved to Paris, where he worked briefly under Jules Lefebvre at the Académie Julian* and became a friend of La Fresnaye and Robert Lotiron. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon d'Automne* in 1905 and at the Salon des Indépendants* in 1906, and was often represented in both salons in subsequent years.In Paris he made his living by selling caricatures* to satirical periodicals, including La Vie Parisienne and Le Journal. He frequented the cafés, such as the Rotonde, Cirque Médrano and the Ermitage, where he met Edgar Degas about 1906 and Braque, Picasso and Apollinaire in 1910. In 1907 Markus abandoned painting; when he began to paint again in 1910, he discarded his earlier Impressionist* style to adopt the new Cubist* idiom. About 1911, at the suggestion of Apollinaire, be began calling himself Marcoussis, the name of a village near Monthéry. In 1912 the artist participated in the Salon de la Section d'Or at the Galerie de la Boétie in Paris. By this time his circle included Gris, Léger, Picabia, Metzinger and Max Jacob. He served in the army from 1914 to 1919, returning to Poland for a visit after his demobilization.Marcoussis exhibited in 1921 at the gallery of Der Sturm in Berlin with Gleizes, Villon and others. He was given his first one-man show at Galerie Pierre, Paris, in 1925. This was followed by solo exhibitions in 1928 at the Galerie Le Centaure in Brussels, a city he visited on that occasion, and at the Galerie Georges Bernheim in Paris in 1929. In 1930 the artist made the first of many trips to England and ma Helena Rubinstein, who became his supporter. In 1934-35 be stayed for several months in the United States, where one-man shows of his prints opened a The Arts Club of Chicago in 1934 and Knoedler Gallery* and Co. in New York in 1935. Marcoussis worked almost exclusively in graphics from 1930 to 1937; a retrospective of his prints took place at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1936. The artist traveled in England and Italy in 1938, and during the following year was given a solo exhibition at the London Gallery in London. In 1940, as the German army advanced, Marcoussis left Paris for Cusset, near Vichy, where he died on October 22, 1941.

Albert Gleizes, French, 1881-1953. This vivid painting is Nature Morte, Gouache and pencil on paper, 23.8 cm by 31.8cm ( about 9 5/16" by 12 7/16" ),Signed LR ALB GLEIZES in pencil lr, Verso In Pencil, Nature Morte,Verso Excellent Provenance upon request. His paintings sell for up to $2,709,303 and works on paper sell for up to $150,000. This French painter and writer born Albert Leon Gleizes was raised in Paris and was the son of a fabric designer who ran a large industrial design workshop. After finishing secondary school, he worked with his father and then while serving in the army from 1902 to 1905 he began to paint seriously. Initially influenced by the Impressionists, at twenty-one his work La Seine a Asnieres was exhibited at the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902. With several friends in 1906 he founded the Abbaye de Creteil outside Paris. This commune of artists and writers scorned bourgeois society and sought to create nonallegorical, epic art based on modern themes. The commune closed in 1908 due to financial restraints and in 1909 he came under the influence of Fernand Leger, Robert Delauney, Jean Metzinger and later to Henri Faucconnier who led Gleizes to his cubist style. In 1910 he exhibited at the Salon des Independents, Paris and the Jack of Diamonds in Moscow.In 1914 Gleizes re-entered the military service. His paintings had become abstract by 1915. Galeries Daimau, Barcelona held his first one man show in 1916. Then beginning 1918 while in America, Gleizes developed an interest in spiritual values and as a result the theme of religious thought entered many of his subsequent writings. He founded Moly-Sabata, another untopian community of artists and craftsmen in Sablons. Later in his career he was commissioned for murals for the Paris Worlds Fair of 1937. In 1947, a major Gleizes retrospective occurred in Lyons at the Chapelle du Lycee Ampere. From 1949 to 1950 Gleizes painted illustrations for Pascal’s Pensees and in 1952 he painted a fresco, Eucharist, for the chapel Les Fontaines at Chantilly. Gleizes died in Avignon on June 23, 1953.

Albert Gleizes, French, 1881-1953.This vivid painting is Cubiste Composition, Gouache and pencil on heavy paper, 20.2 cm by 28.3cm (about 7 15/16" by 11.2"), signed LR ALB GLEIZES in black, Verso In Pencil, Miette Braive, Rue Chauehat (or Chauchat) Paris, Circa 1920's. Miette Braive (1916-2000) was a cubist painter in Paris in the circle of Albert Gleizes.\ Excellent Provenance upon request. His paintings sell for up to $2,709,303 and works on paper sell for up to $150,000. Initially influenced by the Impressionists, at twenty-one his work La Seine a Asnieres was exhibited at the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902. With several friends in 1906 he founded the Abbaye de Creteil outside Paris. This commune of artists and writers scorned bourgeois society and sought to create nonallegorical, epic art based on modern themes. The commune closed in 1908 due to financial restraints and in 1909 he came under the influence of Fernand Leger, Robert Delauney, Jean Metzinger and later to Henri Faucconnier who led Gleizes to his cubist style. In 1910 he exhibited at the Salon des Independents, Paris and the Jack of Diamonds in Moscow. His paintings had become abstract by 1915. Galeries Daimau, Barcelona held his first one man show in 1916. Later in his career he was commissioned for murals for the Paris Worlds Fair of 1937. In 1947, a major Gleizes retrospective occurred in Lyons at the Chapelle du Lycee Ampere.

Henri Laurens, Paris, 1885-1954. Cubiste Tete de Femme is pencil and gouache on paper signed H.L. 18 LR. It is 22.3cm by 18.7cm (8.75" by 7.6". The son of a workman, Laurens trained at an early age in a decoration studio, where he modeled period-style ornaments and drew architectural designs. Afterwards Henri Laurens worked on building sites and scaffolding, where he learnt the hands-on side of hewing stone. He also regularly attended the popular evening classes in drawing taught by "Papa Perrin," who instilled in his pupils a serious attitude to craftsmanship. Laurens' first sculptures were influenced by Auguste Rodin until he met Georges Braque in 1911. After encountering Cubism*, Henri Laurens began to translate the ideas of Analytical Cubism into sculpture, polychrome bas-relief* and collages*. Picasso, who liked what Laurens was doing, introduced the fledgling sculptor to Léonce Rosenberg, who was so enthusiastic about Laurens' work that he bought some of it and supported Laurens throughout the war years. A number of terracotta* and stone reliefs Henri Laurens did not long after the war reveal the influence of Jacques Lipchitz and African sculpture. By then repudiating Cubist geometric forms, Henri Laurens again approached nature, developing an organic, curvilinear style in which he produced highly abstract, rhythmic figures - usually female nudes - that were poetic and powerful. In numerous works Henri Laurens took up themes from Greco-Roman mythology and reinterpreted them. In 1944 Henri Laurens started producing designs for La Grande Sirène, and in 1953 he did Amphion, a bronze sculpture over four meters high commissioned by the university city of Caracas, Venezuela. Henri Laurens worked over each piece individually to ensure fullness and substance. Henri Laurens was awarded the Grand Prix for sculpture at the São Paolo Biennial* in 1953. Apart from sculpture, Laurens' legacy comprises a copious graphic œuvre: woodcuts, etchings and book illustrations. Henri Laurens died in Paris on 5 May 1954.