ANDRÉ LHOTE (FRANCE/ 1885 - 1962) - Lot 82

ANDRÉ LHOTE (FRANCE/ 1885 - 1962) Crouching nude 1930 Oil on canvas Signed 'A. LHOTE' (upper right) Dated and titled "Nu, 1930" on reverse and inventory number 199 on stretcher 73 x 60 cm Madame Dominique Bermann-Martin has confirmed the authenticity of this work. PROVENANCE - Acquired by Lucien Pierre from André LHOTE's widow or by the artist himself, in the 1960s. Lucien Pierre lived at 29 rue Boulard, not far from André Lhote at 38 rue Boulard. COLLECTION LUCIEN PIERRE (1925-2010): A craftsman close to Montparnasse artists The works in the Lucien Pierre (1925-2010) collection plunge us into the bohemian artistic Paris of the Montparnasse district from the 1930s to the 1970s, when the City of Light was the capital of the arts. A modest plumber from the Loire Valley, Lucien Pierre moved to Paris around 1960 to set up a small plumbing and hardware business. He settled on rue Boulard, next to the "Villa Boulard", close to rue Daguerre and Montparnasse, in an artists' district known since the 1900s, where Chaïm Soutine, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Moïse Kisling, Ossip Zadkine, Léonard Foujita and Pinchus Kremegne (whose work features in this collection), among others, lived. Lucien Pierre soon began working with painters, and developed a passion for painting. He bought, or was offered, numerous paintings and drawings by artists such as André Lhote, whose widow was his neighbor. He was also close to Dayez, Kremegne, Tcherniawsky, and above all Simon-Lévy, a painter of Alsatian origin of whom he owned some forty works, and at whose house he tasted Pétrus and Château d'Yquem. Lucien Pierre later met the optical artist Yaacov Agam, and above all César, a leading figure in Nouveau Réalisme, his neighbor and friend. Lucien Pierre's collection of paintings covers every corner of his home on rue Boulard. Epicurean, bon vivant, sometimes colorful, always warm-hearted, Lucien Pierre loved to entertain his friends on rue Boulard over a fine Burgundy wine (his other passion) amidst all his paintings.