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Image

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Monastère sur la colline

Painting

Author

By (artist) non identifié, Henri, dit le Douanier Rousseau

Description

Anonymous oil on canvas, although "Henri Rousseau, called Le Douanier" is written on the frame.

According to Jean-Michel Goutier, Robert Lebel bought this painting at the Benjamin Péret sale of June 28, 1968 at the Hôtel Drouot, and later offered it to Elisa Breton.

"Among the works for sale is a small, naive painting of a castle on a hill. Robert Lebel bought it for Elisa at the Benjamin Peret auction at Drouot in 1968. The little canvas featured among the books, manuscripts and paintings of this exemplary surrealist poet, reminds one of Magritte's Château des Pyrénées or of the property described by Breton in Il y aura une fois, where he dreams of inviting all his friends. I find it deeply moving that the painting should today sit equally among the works of Miro, Picasso, Picabia, Brauner, Toyen, Lam and many others. It is a testimony of the will of the surrealists to defy aesthetic and artistic classifications and as such subverts the rules of the market. This little painting from the Péret collection, like all of the pieces caught in the net of Breton's gaze, held a fascination. It is the fascination of the chance encounter. Whoever so wishes may fall prey to such an encounter." Jean-Michel Goutier, Introduction to the catalogue of the Breton Sale, Paris, april 2003.

Bibliography

:
Vente Benjamin Péret, Hôtel Drouot, 28 juin 1968, n° 151, Paris.