Femme assise au café Le Grand Teddy is a pastel and pencil preparatory study for one of the figures in Vuillard’s painting commissioned in 1918 to hang on the walls of the Grand Teddy bar and café in Paris. It shows a young woman in silhouette wearing a hat seated at a table in the café having a drink. The 6 x 3¾in (16 x 9.5cm) work, with a monogrammed stamp lower right, comes from the collection of Alexandre Natanson.
It is being put on by the Galerie AB in Paris and has been assembled by Agnès Aittouares, the gallery’s founder, over 25 years.
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) and Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) met at the Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux Arts in 1899 and studied at the Académie Julien. In their early lives they spent much time together staying with each other’s families.
The drawings on offer are a mix of preparatory studies and sketches featuring figures and landscapes and are priced from €6000-50,000.
Bonnard’s study of his partner and model Marthe shown in profile is an illustration for Marie, a novel by Peter Nansen that was published in the avant-garde publication La Revue Blanche which was founded by the Natanson brothers in 1891. The 7½ x 6in (19 x 15cm) close-up study in ink and brush dates from 1898 and is signed lower right. It shows the model naked with her face turned away and her hair in a bun in the manner of Japanese prints which were a strong influence for the Nabis movement, of which these two artists were members.
Pictured here are two typical works from the show which runs from April 14 to May 28.
