Luis Fernández López (1900-1973) - Le chat

LUIS FERNÁNDEZ LÓPEZ

Oviedo, 1900 – Paris, 1973

Le Chat

Oil on canvas
46 × 33 cm
Signed in the lower right corner.

A work of great expressive force by Luis Fernández López, one of the most singular personalities of 20th-century Spanish avant-garde and of the so‑called School of Paris. Having settled in Paris since 1924, Fernández came into contact with the major currents of European modernity, evolving from purism and geometric abstraction toward Surrealism and, later, toward a deeply personal, austere figurative painting of extraordinary psychological intensity. The Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao preserves and extensively documents his work and confirms the existence of the catalog raisonné of paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures 1900–1973, published in 2010 by the Azcona Foundation and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias.

A work with important documentation and provenance

The painting is accompanied by a certificate dated in Paris 8 June 1999, signed by Cyrille Cohen, Commissaire-Priseur, of the house S.C.P. Calmels–Chambre–Cohen, 12 rue Rossini, Paris. In said document the work is expressly identified as:

Luis Fernández, Le Chat, oil on canvas, signed bottom right, 46 × 33 cm.

The certificate also records that the painting had been presented as lot no. 47 in the auction of Art Moderne et Contemporain held at Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, on 12 April 1999.

In that sale the work started with an estimate of 60,000–80,000 French francs and reached a hammer price of 100,000 FRF, equivalent to €15,245, clearly surpassing the high estimate. This Parisian auction provenance constitutes a particularly interesting element within the piece’s history.

Provenance:
Calmels–Chambre–Cohen, Hôtel Drouot-Richelieu, Paris.
Art Moderne et Contemporain, 12 April 1999, lot 47.
Hammer price: 100,000 FRF / €15,245.
Private collection since 1999.

Documentation: Cyrille Cohen, Commissaire-Priseur, Paris, certificate dated 8 June 1999; documentation and image of the 1999 auction; bibliography relating to the catalog raisonné of Luis Fernández.

To state in the auction catalog that this particular exemplar “figures in the catalog raisonné,” I would add the catalog number and the exact page if you have them. The photograph you sent me proves the existence of the catalog raisonné, but does not yet show the page where Le Chat appears. With that page we can convert it into an incontestable bibliographic reference.

Luis Fernández and Picasso

The importance of Fernández within European painting of his generation is also linked to his close artistic relationship with Pablo Picasso, whom he met in Paris in 1934. It was not simply a chance relationship: Fernández showed works to Picasso to hear his opinion, and the documentation kept by the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao records the extraordinary impression his painting made on him. On one occasion Picasso declared that his paintings thrilled him and that he looked at them continually, precisely because of the difficulty of understanding how they were made.

This relationship places Fernández at the intellectual core of Parisian avant-garde. His work, however, has always maintained an independent personality: slow, rigorous painting, execution extremely deliberated and distant from any mass commercial production.

Le Chat

In Le Chat the artist transforms a seemingly domestic motif into an unsettling and monumental image. The cat occupies almost the entire surface of the canvas, built with broad brushstrokes, layers of matter and strong contrasts of greens, ochres, blacks, whites and earth tones. The large yellow eyes and the deliberate distortion of the face produce that mix of attraction and strangeness characteristic of Fernández’s figurative phase.

The composition demonstrates his ability to transform reality without abandoning it, something that precisely attracted Picasso’s attention. The figure seems to emerge from the dark background while the painterly matter, impasto and drawing intertwine to turn the animal into a quasi-totemic presence.

In terms of format, theme, visual power and, above all, for its documented Paris provenance, the 1999 certificate and the catalog raisonné bibliography of the artist, it is a work particularly attractive to collectors of Spanish avant-garde painting and the School of Paris.