(Opocno, Boemia,1871–1957 Puteaux)
Bather, 1904, signed, dated Kupka ‘04, oil on canvas, 56 x 56 cm, framed, (AR)

The authenticity of the work was confirmed by Karl Flinker (letter to the owner, 13 October 1983)

We are grateful to Pierre Brullé for his kind assistance to the cataloging of the work.

Provenance:
Artist’s studio (as confirmed by the above letter by Karl Fllinker)
Galleria del Levante, Milan - Munich
Sale Finarte Rome, 19 November 1992, Lot 264
European Private Collection

Exhibition:
Lerici, Castello Monumentale, La Nuova Oggettività e altre cose - il mondo di Emilio Bertonati, 15 July - 17 September 2000, exh. cat. published by Mazzotta, p. 24 with ill.

Frantisek Kupka studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and subsequently in Vienna. He moved to Paris in 1894, where he came in contact with the most modern painting trends of his time. The present work perfectly represents the link between tradition and avant-garde.

The protagonist of the painting is the white body of the female figure, whose stretched arm frames a seascape consisting entirely of a symphony of blue shades and white touches. The figure distances herself from the everyday image of a bather at the beach (which can be probably identified as the shore of Trégastel in Brittany) and is reminiscent of a classical Venus.

The iconographic reference to the survival of classical heritage coexists with the modern brushstrokes used to reproduce the figure’s complexion. The artist’s brushstrokes become yet more determined in his rendering of the sea and the white borders of the waves.

The red touches to the left of the canvas contribute to drawing the viewer’s attention to this work, which foreshadows the artist’s future development towards the abstract avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century. The artist begins to distance himself from Figurativism, hinting at the presence of cloths left on the cliff only by means of colours and brushstrokes.

The authenticity of the work was confirmed by Karl Flinker (letter to the owner, 13 October 1983)

We are grateful to Pierre Brullé for his kind assistance to the cataloging of the work.

Provenance:
Artist’s studio (as confirmed by the above letter by Karl Fllinker)
Galleria del Levante, Milan - Munich
sale Finarte Rome, 19 November 1992, Lot 264
European Private Collection

Exhibition:
Lerici, Castello Monumentale, La Nuova Oggettività e altre cose - il mondo di Emilio Bertonati, 15 July - 17 September 2000, exh. cat. published by Mazzotta, p. 24 with ill.

Frantisek Kupka studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and subsequently in Vienna. He moved to Paris in 1894, where he came in contact with the most modern painting trends of his time. The present work perfectly represents the link between tradition and avant-garde.

The protagonist of the painting is the white body of the female figure, whose stretched arm frames a seascape consisting entirely of a symphony of blue shades and white touches. The figure distances herself from the everyday image of a bather at the beach (which can be probably identified as the shore of Trégastel in Brittany) and is reminiscent of a classical Venus.

The iconographic reference to the survival of classical heritage coexists with the modern brushstrokes used to reproduce the figure’s complexion. The artist’s brushstrokes become yet more determined in his rendering of the sea and the white borders of the waves.

The red touches to the left of the canvas contribute to drawing the viewer’s attention to this work, which foreshadows the artist’s future development towards the abstract avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century. The artist begins to distance himself from Figurativism, hinting at the presence of cloths left on the cliff only by means of colours and brushstrokes.