AUGUSTE HERBIN (FRANKRIKE 1882-1960). "Six".

Oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm. Signed and dated herbin 1950.

Laurent Claisse has confirmed the authenticity of this work. Certificate of authenticity is included with the purchase.

PROVENANCE Purchased in the 1950s in Paris by the lawyer Gunnlaugur Fjordarson, later inherited by his son, the film director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson "Rappen", then as a gift in the 1990s to the current owner's father, the film producer and screenwriter, Bo Jonsson.

"Just as music has, painting also has its own alphabet which forms the basis for all colors and forms" Auguste Herbin (1949).

Auguste Herbin grew up in a working-class family in Quiévy in northern France. After studying art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lille, he arrived in 1901 in the metropolis of Paris. The legendary World's Fair had just taken place and the city vibrated with the energy of modern life and faith in the future. This inspired artists to new motifs and ways of thinking in an artistic life that began to become increasingly theoretical and questioning. Herbin had arrived as a follower of Impressionism, and began his stay with colorful, reverent depictions of the city. But through his open mind to the development of modern painting, he soon made a splash in Fauvism and then had his entire world of ideas transformed by Cubism. However, he maintained his artistic integrity by sticking to the foundation of his art, which was and remained, the strong color.

It was in connection with the move to Montmartre in 1909, to the legendary Bateau Lavoir residence, that an inspired Herbin created his first Cubist work. Conversations and discussions were held between poets, writers and artists about the expression of the new modern age. Here lived, among several legendary names for posterity, Pablo Picasso and George Braque, who in the years before the outbreak of war in 1914 conducted an energetic collaboration in the exploration of visual realities. Their synthetic cubism engaged Herbin who created works of a similar nature in colorful interlocking compositions. He was soon inducted into the avant-garde and participated in the historical exhibitions; Salon des indépendants in 1911 and in the Salon de la section d'Or, the following year. One of those who caught the eye of Herbin's painting was the German art collector, critic and gallerist Wilhelm Udhe. At the Clovis Sagot gallery, where Herbin's watercolors were shown in 1912, Udhe writes in the catalog preface: "Special are those whom we appreciate, their strong artistic souls, their heads full of courage, their admirable ingenuity of new formulas. They are the ones who create the style that characterizes the century. (...) Thus, in Herbin's painting we find a passionate youth, a strong joy of life and victory, as well as flamboyant and distinctive colors that testify to a cultured and productive soul. It is an infinite calm, a superb harmony in the strong and simple composition".

During the raging world war in 1917, Herbin produced his first non-figurative work. The colors were strong and each geometric shape was clear in its expression. Through continued experimentation during the war, his compositions grew. In 1931 he formed with the artist Georges Vantongerloo the epoch-making movement Abstraction-Création, which was an association for non-figurative artists whose aim was to bring about a union between painting and sculptural techniques. Despite society becoming darker, filled with loss and hopelessness, he let painting be precisely painting in its own expressive language, without using it to communicate his political views. After the end of the war, he thus received his great recognition as a concrete non-figurative artist. His "alphabet plastique", that is, his published language in the artistic field, interested and fascinated.

Stockholm Auktionsverk is proud to be able to present the work "Six", which since it was bought in Paris in the early 1950s, has never been shown to the public. The Icelander Gunnlaugur Fjordarson, who was in the city to study law at the Sorbonne in the early 1950s, met Herbin at one of his exhibitions and took a liking to his art. After speaking with Herbin, he bought a total of three works from him, including the one in the auction. As a professional back in Reykjavik, Fjordarson, in addition to his profession as a lawyer and chairman of the Red Cross, was a great art collector. The work "Six", which was considered the best of the three treasures in the collection, was then inherited by Fjordarson's son, the film director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson "Rappen". Rappen, born in 1948, also living in Reykjavik, worked together with the Swedish film producer and screenwriter, Bo Jonsson (1938-2018). Together they created films such as "The Raven Flies" and "Prince of Darkness". The auction's colorful work has until today had to stay within the sphere of film production, when in the 1990s it passed on to Jonsson after a debt settlement between the friends. Bo "Bosse" Jonsson is known, among other things, for films such as "Jack" and "Sällskapsresan films". He was also CEO of the Swedish Film Institute between the years 1970-1972. His children, who inherited the work after their father, are also active in film production.

Udhe's eulogy written in 1912 could equally well describe the auction's work "Six", even though it was painted more than 20 years later. Herbin was seen, by a new generation of artists, as a chieftain of modern art. The flamboyant colors of the work, which are dominated by red, yellow, purple and orange, carry the composition. The colored flat shapes radiate energy and "self-clarity" in their imaginative and creative formations. The design language looks graceful, and almost seems to move in a quiet flow. It is a beautiful language that is created in the meeting between color and shape, as well as in the relationships of the units to each other. In the painting, just as in what Udhe highlighted in 1912, there is still ingenuity and joy, just as there is a harmony in the perfection of the composition. Herbin opposed all kinds of oppression in writing during the war years, but art was probably his greatest work for his audience. In it, he never abandoned the energetic color scale, which contributed to a bright visual world of imagination, inaccessible to external circumstances.

Has resale rights.

Minor cracks, minimal color loss, lack of varnish along the right side. For further information, please contact victoria.svederberg@auktionsverket.se.