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Inventory # PCRE-00749-0039

1925 - 1992
American

À Guy
mixed media on paper
signed ''Joan" and titled and on verso titled Untitled and dated c. 1967 - 1970 on the gallery label
7 x 4 1/2 in, 17.8 x 11.5 cm

PROVENANCE
A gift from the Artist to Guy Viau (1920 - 1971)
By descent to Private Collection, Montreal
Acquired from the above by Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal


Joan Mitchell was known to do works on paper throughout her career, and pastel was probably her preferred medium above all else. In this very rare composition, dating from the late 1960s she fuses coloured pencil, graphite and pastels together with great care and sensitivity. With a delicate, quivering touch, she conveys here something rarely seen in her canvases, despite the fact that her drawings regularly served as studies for her large-format paintings. Mitchell offered this work to Guy Viau – director of the National Gallery of Canada at the time, and close friend to Jean Paul Riopelle – while lunching together at the artists’ home in Vétheuil, France.

Joan Mitchell a dessiné sur le papier tout au long de sa carrière, et le pastel est probablement le médium qu’elle préférait par-dessus tout. Dans cette très rare composition issue de la fin des années 1960, et dont très peu d’exemples existent, elle manie avec grande sensibilité le pastel, le graphite et le crayon de couleur. Une telle délicatesse – un frémissement du dessin – est rarement convoyée dans ses peintures, même si très souvent les œuvres sur papier servaient d’études aux grandes toiles. L’artiste avait offert ce dessin à Guy Viau, alors directeur du Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, un grand ami de Jean Paul Riopelle, lors d’un dîner chez le couple d’artistes à Vétheuil.

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Par la présente, l’acheteur est avisé que les Modalités et conditions de vente ainsi que les Termes du catalogue, y compris l’Avis de vente HO2 à la Galerie Simon Blais et les addendas ou erratas spécifiques à la vente aux enchères HO2 menée avec la Galerie Simon Blais, doivent être lus en entier.

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