František Kupka (Opočno, Czech Republic, 1871 – Puteaux, France, 1957). Gymnastics (GYMNASON) Colored pencil, pencil, gouache and ink on tracing paper. 10.9 x 25.7 cm. Certificate signed by expert Pierre Brullé on 29 September 2023. PROVENANCE: - Private collection, Demaso Perera and Carmen Alonso, Paris and Madrid. Acquired directly from the artist around the 1950s. - By descent in 2002 to the current owners. - Sotheby's, London, Modern Discoveries, 2023. Lot 6. - Private collection, France, acquired in the aforementioned sale. PUBLICATION: - Sotheby's, London, Modern Discoveries, 2023. Lot 6. CONDITION: Good condition. Signed in the lower right corner. Titled “ΓΥΜΝΑΣΙΟN” in the upper right corner. DESCRIPTION: This drawing by František Kupka is part of a long tradition of studies of the nude human body in motion, beginning in the Renaissance. Here, the artist works with various media—graphite and colored pencil, ink, and gouache—to suggest the volume and dynamism of bodies in a precise manner. Composed like an ancient Roman frieze, with a foreground and background, with no other elements constructing the space in depth, it features six male figures. On the left, a pair of wrestlers, their bodies intertwined, the head of one of them turned to the right, drawing our gaze to their interlocutor, an elderly man in classical dress, perhaps their teacher or instructor. In a study by Kupka done shortly before, between 1904 and 1905, a similar analysis of the tense bodies of two wrestlers captured in the midst of a confrontation can be seen (fig. 1). On the right side of the scene are three more figures: a figure with his back turned preparing to throw the discus, directly inspired by the Discobolus by the Greek sculptor Myron, and two young men holding hands, one moving forward with a joyful expression, the other lagging behind, but allowing himself to be carried along by the young man, bowing his face and covering it with his right hand. Finally, in the background and barely outlined, the figures of two runners can be distinguished in full swing. The title in Greek, "Gymnasion," directly alludes to the gymnasiums of ancient Greece, where young athletes trained naked, preparing for both sports competitions and war. Still framed within the formative influences of the young artist, which combined academicism and the study of the classics with an emphasis on drawing and the expressive line of Art Nouveau, this is a very early work in Kupka's career, before his turn toward abstraction in the early 1910s. Already during these years, around 1908-1909, avant-garde tendencies in his work with color can be seen in his paintings, but in his drawings he still shows a focus on the study of nature, the forms of the human body, and, as this drawing demonstrates, the formulas of Greek classicism. This is also the case with a drawing dated between 1904 and 1905, in which Kupka depicts two figures wearing draped garments of clear classical inspiration, captured with a dramatic content influenced by Symbolist influences (fig. 2). PARALLELS: Fig. 1 František Kupka. “Les Lutteurs”, c. 1904-1905. Graphite and wash on paper, 31 x 47.7 cm. Center Pompidou, Paris, inv. AM 2767 D. Fig. 2 František Kupka. “Deux hommes drapés”, h. 1904-1905. Grease pencil on paper, 32.5 x 42.4 cm. Center Pompidou, Paris, inv. AM 2770 D.