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Provenance: Acquired by the previous owner circa 1955.
In the collection of the present owner since the early 1980's.
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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE BELGIAN COLLECTION
Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €20,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €20,001 and €800.000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €800.000. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.
The present lot is probably a preliminary work for the oil on canvas The Man with the Bottle from 1920 (Piet Boyens, Gustave De Smet, Antwerp 1989, cat. no. 526, p. 358, now in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges), but is much brighter in tone and looser in composition.
From 1920 on the human figure will play an important role in De Smet's work, especially the human couple regularly appears. Boyens writes about the oil on canvas with the same subject: "In The Man with the Bottle we see the man in the front, with his pipe between his teeth, a bottle on the table, the cat on his lap; in the back-room the naked woman, shy, awaiting. With this scene the artist creates an atmosphere of modesty and tenderness at the one hand and a nervous tension on the other hand. Intimacy and a refined eroticism are showing through. This way the intrigue between man and woman is suggested in covered terms.
After 1920 the landscape as a motive would disappear, only to return around 1930. The human figure will be the near exclusive theme in De Smet's paintings. The bodily forms of man and woman in The Man with the Bottle lay the foundation of the human figure, which from then on will populate De Smet's paintings.
In 'Man with the Bottle' De Smet summarizes all his motifs. First of all there is the woman, humble, but always dignified and omnipresent. Furthermore there are the items which give daily life its colour and chase away sadness: the pipe and the bottle. Finally De Smet presents the gentleman absorbed in thought (...), the physionomy is developed from the features of the farmers and fishermen from 1917 and 1918. Although mild alterations will take place after 1920, this type will be the characteristic form of the male head. Also the oval-shaped woman's head will take its definitive shape around 1920." (P. Boyens, Gust. De Smet, Antwerp 1989, p. 155)
The authenticity of the present lot has kindly been confirmed by Mr. Piet Boyens.
