Lot 109

Pravoslav Kotík (1889 - 1970) AU SOLEIL

In the context of Pravoslav Kotík's work, France represented an indispensable impulse that determined the direction of his artistic career for a long time. He visited it for the first time in 1924 and returned to the country repeatedly throughout his life. It was his stays in France that provided Kotík with the necessary artistic experience. A key moment in his artistic genesis was his acceptance of Picasso's lessons and their unique application in his painting, which to a certain extent marked the end of his classicizing period, dating from 1920 to 1924. The watercolor on paper entitled Au Soleil from 1927 also belongs to this phase of his development. The French cityscape, together with its inhabitants and architecture, is depicted here in a concise formal and coloristic manner. Although the figures are rendered succinctly, with only a few contours, Kotík presents himself here as a sensitive observer of the atmosphere of everyday life, which he is able to capture with just a few brushstrokes.