JULES PASCIN (1885-1930) Les Provinciales (Painted in 1913)

JULES PASCIN (1885-1930) Les Provinciales oil on board mounted on canvas 46 x 38cm (18 1/8 x 14 15/16in). Painted in 1913 Footnotes: Provenance Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 1972, lot 62. Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 1974, lot 67. Acquired at the above sale by the previous owner; their sale, Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris, 28 June 2016, lot 27. Acquired at the above sale by the present owner. Literature Y. Hemin, G. Krohg, K. Perls & A. Rambert, Pascin, catalogue raisonné, peintures, aquarelles, pastels, dessins , Vol. II, Paris, 1984, no. 263 (illustrated p. 78). Jules Pascin, born Jules Pinkas, was only a teenager when he decided to leave his parents to study painting and travel the world. The owner of a brothel in Bucharest triggered his taste for painting. She encouraged him to draw, introduced him to the art of Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas, and advised him to leave for Paris. However, Pascin, went to Vienna to attend a painting academy where he met George Grosz. A year after, he moved to Munich to work as a cartoonist and decided to change his name to 'Pascin'. When Pascin arrived in Paris in 1905, he was welcomed by the 'Dômiers' (regular customers of Le Dôme café): Rudolf Lévy, Walter Bondy and art dealer Henri Bing. The latter one, introduced him to Hermine David, who later became his wife. In 1908 he enrolled in the Matisse Academy where he met Lucy Krohg, who was then a model at the academy and with whom he started an affair. During his time in Montparnasse, Pascin was known for his generous parties, but nevertheless remained fully dedicated to his artistic ambitions. During World War I, Jules and Hermine went to the United States where he produced a series of watercolours and maintained an epistolary relationship with Lucy. Back in Paris in 1920, he continued his painting with specific interest in the female form and women like Kiki, Aicha, Jacqueline Godar, Zniah Pichard, the Perlmutter sisters, Julie Luce, Hermine and Lucy. Between 1920 and 1930, Pascin travelled in North Africa, Europe and the United States. In 1927, German art dealer Flechtheim organized an exhibition in Düsseldorf and asked Pascin for his portrait by commission. In the meantime, the artist signed a contract with the Bernheim-Jeune gallery that endorsed and motivated him to realise his famous 'pearly' nudes. Suffering from depression and alcoolism, he commited suicide at the aged of 45. In June 1930, art galleries in Paris closed as a sign of mourning while over a thousand people followed the cortege to the Montparnasse cemetery. Following his death, Hermine and Lucy supported each other in their grief and remained closely tied. Les Provinciales dates from the beginning of his lifelong love affair with Lucy in his early Parisian years. Pascin, who was a man of deep passions, divided his time between Lucy and his wife Hermine, and this painting shows the sensuality and power of his nature and his art. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com