$33,180
Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877) Waves Crashing on a Rocky Shore/An Artist's Palette Dedicated and signed "Souvenir d'exil à mon ami Fuchs, G. Courbet" l.l. Oil on panel, 14 1/2 x 26 1/4 in. (36.5 x 67.0 cm), framed (in a shadow box). Condition: Minor retouch, craquelure, minor wear/losses to edges. Provenance: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 123 palettes d'artistes peintes. June 10, 1911, no. 29; The Estate of Sir Edwin A.G. Manton. Literature: Abel Letalle, Palettes d'artistes . Paris, 1912, pp. 37-38 as Marine, executé sur une palette ; Robert Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet: catalogue raisonné , Geneva: Fondation Wildenstein; Lausanne: Biblioteque des Arts, 1977-1978, v. 2, peintures 1866-1877, no. 978. N.B. In the second half of the 19th century in Paris, a fashion appeared for artists to paint an image on a palette, intended as a gift and often so inscribed. It might be said that the responsibility for this taste can be attributed at least in part to the activities of an American man named George Lucas. Lucas lived for many years in Paris, acting as an agent for the many American collectors in the city of that time. He was very successful in bringing artists and patrons together, and the artists often expressed their gratitude in the form of the painted and dedicated palettes --no doubt often encouraged by Lucas to do so. Ultimately his collection held 71 works on palette, now in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Though Courbe
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2010-05-21
