"Iwan Cerf (1883 -1963) Belgian -"Indo-Chinese woman sitting naked. ", Dated 1929"
Gouache watercolor, signed and dated at the bottom right.
Dimensions: 43 x 56 cm, with frame 65.5 x 79.5 cm.
Iwan Cerf represents a young woman sitting, from her left profile. He delicately paints the curve of his body. The painter gives attention to detail.Like a sculptor, he modulates the light to give volume and life to his drawing. One could, on the one hand, think of the legacy of Gauguin, who painted with freedom the young women of the Marquesas Islands in the 1890s. Moreover, we know that Iwan Cerf has a great visual culture. It is not impossible that he took up the canon of the genre: the "Naked young man sitting by the sea", 1835-1836, by Hippolyte Flandrin, exhibited at the Louvre Museum.
Iwan Cerf was born in Belgium, where he began his pictorial practice. In Liège, he joined the Academy of Fine Arts. Since the art of the turn of the century is created and lives in the artistic capital of Europe, he settled in Paris in 1901.
From then on, he studied at the Beaux-arts in Paris, at the workshop of Hippolyte Lefèbvre (sculptor and painter, 1863 – 1935) and Tony Robert-Fleury (history painter, 1837 -1912). Once in Paris, the painter takes advantage of the dynamism of the city to start his career and mark his time. He exhibited at the Salon from 1924 to 1940, at the Salon d'Automne from 1922 to 1942 and at the Salon des Tuileries from 1927 to 1929. He also exhibited at the Germinal Gallery with the Neo-Tradition Group in 1927 and at the Morin-Bénézit Gallery with, among others, Boudin, Berthe Morizot, Fautrier.
His paintings range from portraits, genre scenes, to landscapes and still lifes. Its tones are discreet, the precise drawing and the rigorous construction. Poetry and geometric spirit combine in his balanced compositions
From its landscapes, we remember the views of Provence and the mountains. Otherwise, he is inspired by the fantasies of the Middle East and the far East: we know him as an "Arab Woman" (1921). Rather than an idealistic vision, he prefers warm tones and faithful to his model, which he depicts with simplicity and accuracy.
Museum :
. Museum of Fine Arts of Liège.
Bibliography :
. Art. Vincent Pomarède, "Naked young man sitting by the sea", Paris, louvre.fr .
. Art. "Ivan Cerf", Bénézit Dictionary of Art, Oxford Art Online