Clovis TROUILLE. - Lot 241

Lot n° 241
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
Clovis TROUILLE. - Lot 241
Clovis TROUILLE. Study for The Vampire's Lament. [ca. 1933]. Gouache and watercolour on paper, signed lower right (31.5 x 20 cm). Preparatory study for the famous Complainte du vampire: beautiful gouache on paper, signed. This painting-rebus dramatizing the threat of death, with its erotic and anticlerical references, is one of the most emblematic paintings of the work of Clovis Trouille (1889-1875): the subject has been modified several times, since the first state in 1930. By the painter's own admission, "this title is imitated from the lamentations, the songs composed after the great events of the time. In the bishop's mitre, I had put a woman's sex. But in front of the reactions, I hid the sex under the flowers. The head on the left is taken from a tale by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (The Secret of the Scaffold). That is why we see this head with one eye open and the other closed. It was originally a host that was stabbed. Some people complained, so I put a rose instead." The changes can be seen here. Few of the artist's works circulate on the market or are in private collections. Apart from those in the Filipacchi collection, which owns La Complainte du vampire, most of it has remained in the family. (Clovis Prévost, Parcours à travers l'oeuvre de Clovis Trouille, 1889-1975, Paris, éditions Mélie-s, 1999, pp. 100-101: with reproductions of several states of the painting.)
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