Paul Dufrane (1922-1999) - La guardienne

A hard-edge surrealist composition by the Brussels painter Paul Dufrane, signed, titled La Gardienne and dated 1976 in the lower right of the picture plane.

The scene reads as a landscape and a body at once: a deep green foreground laid down in vertical bands, a plum-coloured form rising above the horizon, a pale green ribbon curling into a barbed rod, and a pale hand outlined in orange resting in the grass. Dufrane paints in flat, matte fields with almost no visible brushwork, and lets the drawing do the work — the whole picture turns on the few red-brown lines that cross it. A band of alternating olive squares runs along the top edge, closing the composition like a cornice. Oil on hardboard, the reverse carrying the woven press-mat texture typical of the support, presented in a cream-painted inner frame and a giltwood outer frame.

Dufrane (Saint-Gilles, Brussels, 1922–1999) trained at Sint-Lucas and at the Brussels Academy under Anto Carte and L. Devos. He began non-figuratively, moved towards surrealism, and became one of the painters associated with the Belgian fantasmagie circle that formed around 1958 and with the collage group Coll'Art in the early 1970s. Works of his are held in the Print Room in Brussels. This canvas comes from his mature period, when the erotic and the botanical had merged into a single flat, quiet vocabulary.

Condition: Very Good
The paint layer is stable and unrestored, with no craquelure, flaking or retouching visible under raking light. The panel is flat, with no warping or edge damage, and the original paper tape around the reverse is intact. A small dark spot sits on the cream inner frame above the canvas edge, and the giltwood frame shows light rubbing at the corners consistent with age. No repairs observed.

Measurements: Panel 29 × 39 cm (w × h). Framed 40.5 × 51 cm.

Shipping: Medium package. The work is shipped framed and packed for transport.