Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The favorite artist of French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, De Staël is cited as an influence on the use of primary colors in the 1965 film <em>Pierrot Le Fou</em>.

Description

Nicolas de Stael painted Landscape at Le Lavandou at a major turning point in his artistic development. After years of painting abstract compositions in the studio, he surprised his contemporaries when he began working outdoors in 1952. Seeking greater contact with nature, he spent his last years working largely along the Mediterranean coast. His attempt at reconciling abstraction and figuration, not valuing one over the other, was regarded as a breakthrough toward a more lyrical, French form of abstraction in the tradition of Paul Cézanne, Georges Braque, and Henri Matisse. The long, horizontal composition in this painting is divided into zones of blue and red that evoke associations with land and sea.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Artist’s signature: Staël

Provenance

before 1967

Alexandre Farra, Paris, France ¹

1969

(Galerie Brame, Paris, France, sold to Rachel Lambert (Mrs. Paul) Mellon [1911–2014]) ²

1969–2014

Rachel Lambert (Mrs. Paul) Mellon [1911–2014] ³

November 10, 2014

(Sotheby's, New York, NY, Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, November 10, 2014, lot 10, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley)

2014–2020

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

2020–

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Provenance Footnotes

¹“Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955): Peintures et Dessins,” Galerie Motte, Geneva, July-August 1967, cat. no. 24, notes the painting was previously in the Collection Farra, Paris.

²According to Germain Viatte, André Chastel, and Anne de Staël, Nicolas de Staël: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint (Neuchâtel: Ides et Calendes, 1997), p. 378, cat. no. 498, ill.

³According to Germain Viatte, André Chastel, and Anne de Staël, Nicolas de Staël: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint (Neuchâtel: Ides et Calendes, 1997), p. 378, cat. no. 498, ill.

Citations

Staël, Nicolas de, André Chastel, Germain Viatte, Jacques Dubourg, and Françoise de Staël. Nicolas De Staël. Paris, France: le Temps 1968. Reproduced: p. 183, cat. no. 362

Viatte, Germain, André Chastel, and Anne de Staël. Nicolas de Staël: catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Ides et Calendes, 1997. Reproduced: p. 378, no. 498

Nicolas de Staël, 1914-1955: Peintures et Dessins: Juillet-Août 1967. Genève: Galerie Motte, 1967. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 16, no. 24

Exhibition history

Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955): Peintures et Dessins, Galerie Motte, Geneva, Switzerland, (July-August 1967)

Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).