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NEOCLASSICAL MARBELIZED COMPOSITION STOVE, SE

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:7,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
NEOCLASSICAL MARBELIZED COMPOSITION STOVE, SE
NEOCLASSICAL MARBELIZED COMPOSITION STOVE, SECOND QUARTER OF THE 19TH CENTURY 81 in. (205.7 cm) high 191/8 in. (48.5 cm) diameter of base Estimate: $7,000-10,000 Provenance Galerie du Passage, Paris BÉRARD FRANK and KOCHNO Christian Bérard (1902-1949) was a versatile artist who moved fluently between painting, illustrating, advertising, costume design, theater sets and decorative objects. Called Bébé by some because of his baby face and childish antics, Bérard also had a darker side, and he struggled in vain with drug addiction. His paintings often exude a melancholy air and his self-portraits are particularly poignant. Bérard tended to depict himself in a distant manner, always in search of an identity. In On the Beach, Double Self-Portrait he portrays himself as a middle-aged androgynous person, and in the self-portrait offered here, he paints an affected young dandy with a forlorn gaze. Indeed, Bérard often chose to paint a single morose protagonist with a lonely or faraway look, seemingly focused on another realm, as in his painting La Voyante (The Clairvoyant). Yet, while his canvases reveal the sadder side of his personality, Bérard's work for theater and film was light, fanciful and consistently magical. He began designing for the theater and ballet after he met Boris Kochno, who worked for the Ballets Russes' producer Serghei Diaghilev and later became a renowned librettist. Their relationship lasted until Bérard's death in 1949. During that time, Bérard delved into every aspect of dramatic and artistic direction from creating sets and costumes to lighting and make-up. He often collaborated with Jean Cocteau and was the artistic director for Cocteau's 1946 masterpiece production of Beauty and the Beast. Bérard also enjoyed a close professional relationship with Jean-Michel Frank, adding his own inimitable decorative touches of color and dramatic flair to Frank's elegant interiors. In the fashion world, his work with great designers and his illustrations for magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar have left a lasting legacy. Throughout his life and in all his works, Bérard demonstrated exquisite taste and an artistic vision much admired by his contemporaries.