Female Nude, Large Red Chalk Drawing - "danseuse" - Charles Malfray

Female nude, Large red chalk drawing - "DANSEUSE" - Charles Malfray (Orléans, 1887 - Dijon 1940)

DIMENSIONS: H. 64 W. 48 cm / H. 23,60 W. 18,90 inch
PROVENANCE: private collection following acquisition in an auction room following a studio sale
MUSEUM REFERENCES: Paris, Musée national d'art moderne and Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris / Roubaix, La Piscine / Orléans, Musée des beaux-arts / Algiers, Fondation des arts et des artistes
CONDITIONS: good condition - restoration by an approved professional (dust removal, consolidation of small tears, etc.) - sold unframed: can be framed with museum-quality backing board and conservation matting and a stick of your choice
SHIPPING: Contact us, we'll think it over together / Careful tracking and tracing worldwide. Personal delivery is possible on request.
GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE: in accordance with the general terms and conditions of sale in force at Galerie Theophanos - Galerie Theophanos
We issue an invoice detailing shipping and packaging costs in addition (framing).

General negotiation possible

LARGE RED CHALK DRAWING OF A DANCER.
SIGNED CH.MALFRAY LOWER LEFT AND STUDIO STAMP LOWER RIGHT
This large red chalk drawing, produced around 1937, depicts a nude woman, her arms raised and her legs bent in a dance movement. The features of the drawing are those of a preparatory sketch made as part of a project on dance.
As the movement of the chest and hair, and the general position of the model's body might suggest, the sculptor Charles Malfray almost certainly drew a model lying down, with her feet resting on a bedpost. He then turned the drawing upside down, giving it a new orientation and reversing the impression of gravity. From a reclining, static model, he created a dancer in motion, caught in a controlled fall or performing an archaic dance, like a bacchante in a trance.
A sculpture that is thought to be related is in the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. This sculpture, entitled Dance and made in 1938, is a high-relief in patinated plaster whose subject, a nude woman, is depicted in a pose very similar to that in our drawing.
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