Swann Galleries - 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings - Sale 2422, September 22, 2016

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110 ● GEORGES SEURAT
Torse nu, croquis de bras et de jambes .
Pencil on cream wove paper on card, 1879-80. 265x350 mm; 10 1/2x137/8 inches.With the
artist Paul Signac’s initials in red crayon, verso.
Published in C.M. de Hauke, Seurat et son oeuvre, Paris, 1961, catalogue number 329 (illustrated).
Ex-collection the artist’s brother Émile Seurat, Paris; Félix Fénéon, Paris; LouisVauxcelles,
Paris; purchased Sotheby’s, London, October 21, 1998, sale 8643, lot 258, by the current
owner, with a copy of the original invoice.
Fénéon (1861-1944) andVauxcelles (1870-1943) were both major art critics in Paris, coining
the accepted terms “Neo-Impressionism” and “Cubism” respectively. Fénéon championed
the Neo-Impressionists, including Seurat (1859-1891) and Signac (1863-1935), resulting in
Signac’s iconic portrait of the critic, now at The Museum of Modern Art, NewYork.
The artist Signac (see lots 111-114) was in 1884 Seurat’s artistic partner, as founding member
of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, championing their pointillist style, as well as his
close friend and heir when Seurat died early, likely from diphtheria, in 1891.
[20,000/30,000]