MOÏSE KISLING (1891-1953) Jeune Breton

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTOR
MOÏSE KISLING (1891-1953)
Jeune Breton
signed 'Kisling' (lower left)
oil on canvas
29 1/16 x 21 9/16 in (73.8 x 54.7 cm)
Painted in 1931
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Marc Ottavi. This work will be included in the forthcoming Volume IV et Additifs aux Tomes I, II, et III of the Moise Kisling catalogue raisonné currently being prepared.

Provenance
Oscar Ghez Collection, Geneva, by 1971.
Petit Palais Collection, Geneva, by 2008.
Sale: Matsart, Jerusalem, June 30, 2010, lot 200.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Exhibited
Geneva, Petit Palais, Kisling, June 15 – October 29, 1972, no. 20.
Nice, Palais de la Mediterrainée, Kisling et son temps, March - April 1973, no. 7.
Tokyo, Grande Galerie Odakyu, Rétrospective Kisling, May 18 – June 6, 1984, no. 55 (later travelled to Miyazaki, Osaka, and Kobe).
Paris, Grand Palais, Rétrospective Kisling, November 1984, no. 37.
Madrid, Paseo de la Castellana, Kisling, October – November 1988.
Lodève, Musée de Lodève, Kisling, June 14 – November 2, 2008, no. 42.

Literature
J. Kessel & J. Kisling, Kisling, vol. I, Turin, 1971, no. 15 (illustrated p. 70).
M. Vallès-Bled, Kisling, exh. cat., Paris, 2008, no. 42 (illustrated pp. 222 & 133).

Jeune Breton by Moïse Kisling is an exemplary painting from a series of portraits of children that the artist worked on throughout the 1930s. He selected models whom others may have brusquely rejected; indeed, Kisling took a personal interest in the suffering of the poor, frail, and abject. The artist focused on the pathos of his subjects tempered by a strong sense of humanism. Kisling developed an autobiographical dimension in these portraits by projecting the visceral emotions they inspired within him back into the depiction of the marginalized figures. Here he draws the viewer in with a calm, harmonious palette of warm browns and reds, but the primary focus is on the boy's features and expression of feeling – a complex mix of sorrow, pensiveness, and possibly resignation. Kisling has deftly portrayed nuances of feeling in the countenance of his young sitter – emotions elicited within the artist and cast forth from the youth himself.