On the occasion of its participation in FIAC October 19 – 22, 2017, Applicat-Prazan presents Major Works by Important Modern and Post-war European Painters and in particular a 1953 painting by Nicolas de Staël. Originally bought by the collector Edward A. Bragaline from Paul Rosenberg in New York, Arbres et Maisons by Nicolas de Staël, is a sublime and audacious composition, saturated with colour painted in 1953 during his most intensely creative period when he was principally based in Provence. A loan request for this painting has been made for an exhibition entitled Nicolas de Staël en Provence from 4 May to 23 September 2018 at the Hôtel de Caumont in Aix-en-Provence. The year 1953 marked a turning point in the life and work of the painter: the discovery of the light of the French ‘midi’ allowed the artist to seize landscapes closest to their motif with a focus on the evolution of light through the course of the day. The painter wrote to his dealer Paul Rosenberg on February 12, 1954 saying, “If you are satisfied with the exhibition, it is because I was able to work here in the south and in Sicily.”

Nicolas de STAËL (1914 – 1955)
Arbres et maisons (Paysage), 1953
Oil on canvas
65 x 81 cm