Jean DEWASNE (1921-1999) - Lot 59

Jean DEWASNE (1921-1999) Untitled [abstraction], 1945 Oil on canvas pasted on canvas, signed and dated lower right. Significant craquelure. Approx. 130 x 88.5 cm PROVENANCE: Galerie Daniel Cordier (label on back) and Collection DBC [Daniel Bouyjou-Cordier] (label on back). Daniel Cordier often said that his first purchase was a painting by Jean Dewasne, an artist he discovered at the Salon des Réalités nouvelles in 1946. "Dewasne's 'imaginary world', which he compared to Piranesi, seemed to him 'more exotic than any earthly joy' (Daniel Cordier, Amateur d'art, Alias Caracalla 1946-1977, Gallimard, Paris, 2024, page 41). While this first painting, known as Peinture n°1 and dated 1946, is now part of the national collection, having been donated to the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1989, our canvas, which is one year older and bears the collection reference number 01/001/D4 [D4 for Dewasne] on the reverse, corroborates the idea that this is one of the earliest paintings in Daniel Cordier's collection.