PARIS.- Sotheby’s France is holding its first Impressionist and Modern Art sale of the year on 1st June. For this occasion, the auction house has drawn up a catalogue of works with powerful compositions in bright and luminous colours, with the spotlight on great masters of modern art like Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall, Kees Van Dongen, Léon Spilliaert, Odilon Redon and Man Ray.

MARC CHAGALL
Dominating the sale will be two dazzling works by Marc Chagall's, embodying the quintessential poetry and lively palette of the Russian painter. The first is characteristic of the style he developed in Saint-Paul de Vence. Here he deploys his talents as a colourist to marvellous effect. The southern light and vegetation bring out an airier, more voluptuous approach, where the magic of the colours intensifies with each memory and embrace. Following a spatial layout in oblique lines, unusual in Western art but frequent in Chagall, the chromatic palette of Repos dans le ciel multicolore, painted in around 1980 (estimate: €1,200,000-1,800,000) becomes expressionistic and lyrical.

Painted for the 1979 "Paris-Moscou" exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, a few years before Chagall died, Les Mariés sous le baldaquin (estimate: €1,200,000-1,800,000) is a synthesis of all the artist's themes. This work with its sunny beauty, echoing La Noce of 1911 (now in the Musée National d’Art Moderne de Paris), is a positive ode to joy in which the painter transcends the motifs of his youth. The strong diagonals, the juxtaposition of the planes and the unifying treatment of colour are typical of a Chagall at the height of his powers. Here, earth and heaven merge in a yellow that evokes the gold backgrounds of the Renaissance and of Orthodox icons.

FERNAND LÉGER
"The object is really the ‘subject’ of my easel painting. I took the object, I got rid of the table, and I placed the object in the air without any perspective or support." From 1926 onwards, Fernand Léger's major preoccupation was to remove all constraints from the object, and make it independent in relation to the figure. Painted in 1929, Composition d’objets, (estimate: €1,000,000-1,500,000) is a speaking illustration of this goal. One of a series known as "Objets dans l’espace" (1925-30), this work combines the human figure, objects and fragmented motifs.

Another major work by Léger coming up in the auction, Peinture imaginaire (estimate: €1,000,000-1,500,000) is characteristic of the so-called "large format composition" period, where the artist favoured synthetic forms and primary colours. Between 1935 and 1940, Léger received several official commissions from the French State. This picture was part of a commission from the Ministry of National Education in 1938 for a fresco paying tribute to French aviation. Although the project was never completed, it gave rise to this magisterial work in bright colours, constructed as a dreamlike composition halfway between abstraction and figuration.

A FAUVE WORK BY KEES VAN DONGEN APPEARS FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE MARKET
Coming from an outstanding European collection, Portrait de femme, L’Egyptienne, painted in 1909 (estimate: €300,000-400,000) is a work by Kees Van Dongen that has never been exhibited or come on the market before. The rarity of its subject has produced a hypnotic composition echoing the words of Guillaume Apollinaire: "European and exotic in turn, Van Dongen has a personal, violent feeling for Orientalism. His painting often has a whiff of opium and amber." (Preface to the Van Dongen exhibition at the Paul Guillaume Gallery in 1918).

A magnificent later composition by the same artist will also be on offer. Vue sur Cannes (estimate: €500,000-700,000), painted in a shimmering palette of pink, blue and green, can be dated to 1923 through the writings and photographs of Jacques Henri Lartigue.

SYMBOLISM AND SURREALISM
On the borderline of Symbolism and Surrealism, two spectacular works by Léon Spilliaert and Odilon Redon immerse us in the twists and turns of the dream world and subconscious. Executed in 1909, Jeune Femme sur un tabouret (estimate: €400,000-600,000) is undoubtedly one of Léon Spilliaert's most accomplished works. The work is striking for its spellbinding power and particularly innovative chromaticism, mingling a deep, inky black with the phosphorescent colours of the halo surrounding the figure. The result is a work of enchanting beauty, evocative of the art of Edvard Munch.

The world of dreams is also explored by Odilon Redon in Profil sous une arche, painted in 1905 (estimate: €250,000-350,000), reviving one of his favourite themes, reminiscent of the famous Yeux clos in the Musée d’Orsay collection. This magnificent pastel is a concentrate of the painter's art. Through a sensual colour and material, the artist gradually dissolves the motif represented, thus opening the way to the abstract painting of the 20th century. Long after Redon, Mark Rothko and Yves Klein also explored this quest for sensation through colour and substance.

Two works already herald the art of the Surrealist movement, represented in the sale by several works by René Magritte, Salvador Dali and Man Ray. La traversée difficile, 1958, a gouache by René Magritte (estimate: €200,000-300,000), on the market for the first time, takes up one of the Belgian painter's favourite themes: that of the cup and ball toy, which made its first appearance in 1926. In this particularly meticulous and dynamic composition, the artist gives the object an almost mythological dimension, juxtaposing it with a sumptuous red curtain opening onto a raging sea.

Another master of Surrealism, Man Ray, will also feature in the sale, notably with a monumental portrait in extremely bright colours, Mademoiselle H. (estimate: €350,000-500,000), painted in 1952. This life-size portrait comes from the former Man Ray collection sold at Sotheby’s London in 1995, and shows a friend of the couple.