Charles-Frédéric SOEHNÉE.

Lot 86
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Estimation :
2000 - 3000 EUR
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Result : 4 600EUR
Charles-Frédéric SOEHNÉE.
The Hell of the Gamblers. No place or date [ca. 1818]. Original watercolor ink drawing (9.7 x 23.9 cm); under glass, gilded and black wooden frame. Remarkable original watercolor by Charles-Frédéric Soehnée: "l'enfer des joueurs" are five enormous dice rolled by a crowd of small characters under the gaze of a rat of disturbing proportions. A student of Girodet, Charles-Frédéric Soehnée (1789-1878) produced over a hundred drawings, washes and watercolours in 1818. This extraordinary collection was rediscovered by the gallery owner Jean-Marie Le Fell and was the subject of an album prefaced by Patrick Mauriès entitled: Charles- Frédéric Soehnée, un voyage en Enfer (Gallimard, Collection Le Promeneur, 2006: L'Enfer des joueurs is described under n° 81). "One sees there caravans of nomads, processions of exiles, troops of comedians or fugitives accompanied by a monstrous fauna of unicorns and horse-headed birds, giant rats and bats that have become sails of boats. Free continuation? An illustration project for an old or future text? Opiate reveries? We will probably never know the rhyme and reason of this singular phantasmagoria. Soehnée was not then thirty years old. Once this Journey to the Underworld was completed, he apparently gave up painting for good and devoted himself to the development of a varnish, still in use today, which would make his fortune" (publisher's presentation).
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