Chrysanthèmes sur une table

about 1927

Jean Fautrier
French, 1898-1964

In the 1920s Jean Fautrier was part of a circle of artists, including Chaim Soutine and Marc Chagall, whose work grappled with subjects of human tragedy. Here, in a still life of discarded chrysanthemums, the flowers’ decay suggests moral decline and contrasts with the sensual, energetic paint application. Fautrier’s work became less figural over time, approaching total abstraction from the 1940s onward, but he continued to explore themes of suffering, erotic feeling, and death in these later works.

Status: On View, Gallery 392
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Jean Fautrier
Title: Chrysanthèmes sur une table
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1927
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 65 × 81 cm (25 5/8 × 31 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior bequest of Joseph Winterbotham; Director's Discretionary Acquisition Fund
Reference Number: 2022.1414

Paris, Galerie Jeanne Castel, Fautrier. Œuvres anciennes 1923-1942, Apr.–May, 1965, according to Marie-Jose Floret.
Possibly Galerie Jeanne Castel, Paris, Jean Fautrier en hommage à Jeanne Castel, Mar. 30–June, 1970.

Possibly with Jeanne Castel, c. 1930 [this and the following according to verso inscription; Palma Bucarelli. Jean Fautrier: Pittura e Materia (Milan: Il saggiatore, 1960), 51 and 53]. Probably sold through Galerie Jeanne Castel, to private collection, Paris, early 1970s [this and the following, email from Franck Prazan, Aug. 29, 2022; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Applicat-Prazan, Paris, May 20, 2019; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 8, 2022.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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