Othon COUBINE (Boskovice 1883 - Marseille 196... Lot n° 3

The Coffee Boy Circa 1912 Oil on canvas 55 x 32 cm Signed lower right "Kubin Provenance: Acquired by Chana Orloff, Preserved by inheritance Exhibition: Private Collection, The School of Paris & Eretz-Israel Artist at Chana Orloff, Mane Katz Museum, Haifa, 2002, reproduced p.25. Otakar Kubin, known as Othon Coubine, was born in Boskowitz in Moravia in 1883. He studied at the Academies of Prague (1900-1904) and Antwerp. He then undertook study trips, notably to France, Belgium and Italy. Classically trained, he quickly became a major player in the Czech and European avant-garde. From 1907 to 1908, he was a member of the Group of Eight (Osma), composed of painters of the Czech avant-garde, and participated in their first exhibition. In 1907 he went to Munich and exhibited at the Der Sturm gallery and with the avant-garde expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter. Othon Coubine made Paris his main residence in 1912. It was the Paris of the Belle Epoque, marked by social, technological, political, industrial and cultural progress. It was on his arrival in Paris in 1912-13 that Othon Coubine produced this work. Cafés are places of sociability where artists meet to drink and exchange ideas. Here, Othon Coubine chooses to represent a waiter on duty, carrying a tray on which are placed a bottle of Picon and a glass. Othon Coubine delivers here one of the most beautiful cubo-expressionist examples of this period. This work reveals a new artistic language in reaction to a world in full expansion and upheaval. The formal characteristics of this painting are similar to those of the Fauves, the Cubists, the German Expressionists and the Russian Neo-Primitivists. Developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque from 1907 onwards, Cubism strongly influenced the work of Othon Coubine around 1910. The painting presented here is characterized by the geometrization of forms and the human figure. The body of the waiter is formed by a long rectangle and his tray by a circle. Othon Coubine represents this man with two faces, front and side, immediately conveying a sense of movement. The colours used are hot. The yellow colour is applied almost pure, after having been slightly mixed. The human figure largely occupies the centre of the composition. Othon Coubine seeks formal simplification, abandoning perspective to work on the surface of the canvas. The lines of the face, like a mask, are simplified by simple horizontals and verticals. These characteristics are in line with the pictorial language of German expressionists such as Ludwig Kirchner and the neo-primitivists. This highly modern work reflects an era of artistic change and artistic ferment. "The Coffee Boy" comes from the collection of the Russian-born sculptor Chana Orloff. She arrived in Paris in 1910. From 1911, she studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and attended the Académie Marie Vassilief, which opened a studio in Montparnasse in 1912 that became a meeting place for avant-garde artists. Chana Orloff probably met Othon Coubine at this time.