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Signed ‘J. Cavaillès’ (lower right); titled ‘Cordes sur Ciel No 2’ (on the reverse).
Sizes:
Artwork: 19 × 21.5 cm | 7.5 × 8.5 in
The hill town of Cordes-sur-Ciel in the Tarn, its houses stacked along the ridge under a windy blue-and-white sky, painted in broad flat patches of ochre, olive, pink and black. Jules Cavaillès, born a few kilometres away in Carmaux, knew this landscape from childhood and returned to it throughout his life.
Cavaillès (1901–1977) was a founder of the group ‘La Réalité poétique’ with Brianchon, Legueult, Oudot and Terechkovitch — painters who, after the war, defended a sensuous, decorative figuration against abstraction. His landscapes reduce what he sees to a few bold, cut-out shapes with the contours drawn in black, exactly as in this small oil on board.
The panel is signed at the lower right and titled ‘Cordes sur Ciel No 2’ by the artist on the reverse.
Very good condition: a fine, stable network of age cracks in the pale sky and slight rubbing at the extreme edges, otherwise the thin paint layer entirely original, with no retouching in normal or ultraviolet light; the panel flat and sound, with the artist’s title inscription on the reverse. Please contact us to request a detailed Condition Report.
This lot is catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification and is covered by our Five-Year Authenticity Guarantee under Section 4 of the Conditions of Sale. The guarantee concerns authorship; it does not extend to provenance, dating, condition or value, which are described to the best of our knowledge.
Buyers should review the catalogue carefully and raise any questions before bidding; additional information is not ordinarily provided after the auction.
Five years on authorship for works catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification (Section 4 of our Conditions of Sale); headings such as “Attributed to” or “Circle of” are sold as described.
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The estimate of €400–€600 is our opinion of the range this work should reach; the starting price of €300 is the lowest bid we accept. We have not published comparable results for this lot; ask us before the sale and we will send the results we based the estimate on.
Bidding on this site, the buyer’s premium is 25%, Spanish IVA included, and there is no VAT on the hammer price and no card fee: at the starting price of €300 the total is €375; at the low estimate of €400 the total is €500; at the high estimate of €600 the total is €750.
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%, so the same hammer of €600 costs €780 there. Shipping and insurance are quoted separately; the estimator on this page gives the figure for your country. Buyers outside the EU pay no Spanish tax on the lot; the destination’s import rules apply (United States: original paintings and drawings enter duty-free; United Kingdom: 5% import VAT on art). Card payments are accepted up to €10,000; larger amounts by bank transfer.
Yes. This lot is catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification, so it carries our Five-Year Authenticity Guarantee under Section 4 of the Conditions of Sale: if the authorship proves materially incorrect, you may return the work within five years for a refund of the purchase price. The guarantee concerns authorship; provenance, dating, condition and value are described to the best of our knowledge and are not guaranteed.
A condition report with ultraviolet photographs is prepared on request, normally within two working days; the condition summary on this page is examined in-house and is not a conservator’s report. Further photographs of any detail, the reverse or the frame are sent on request. The work can be examined in our Barcelona showroom by appointment before the sale, and you are welcome to send your own conservator or specialist.
Jules Cavaillès was born in Carmaux in 1901, the son of a mining-company employee. He came to Paris in 1919, took evening classes while working, and entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1924; his first Salon d’Automne was in 1927, and in 1936 he won the Prix Blumenthal and had his first solo show at the Galerie Charpentier.
With Brianchon, Legueult, Oudot, Terechkovitch, Limouse, Planson and Caillard he formed the group later called ‘La Réalité poétique’ — painters who kept faith with colour, pleasure and the visible world through the years of abstraction. He taught at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts and was elected to the Institut in 1971.
Cavaillès’ subjects are interiors with open windows, bouquets, women reading, the harbours of the Midi and the landscapes of his native Tarn — Cordes-sur-Ciel, Albi, Carmaux — painted in flat, bright patches bounded by black contour, with a decorator’s sense of pattern.
He exhibited from 1946 with the Galerie Romanet and later with Galerie Charpentier and Wally Findlay, was much collected in the United States, and is represented in the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Centre Pompidou and museums across France. He died in 1977.
Jules Cavaillès (1901–1977), founder of La Réalité poétique: from Carmaux to the Institut, the open windows and bouquets, the Tarn landscapes, and the view of Cordes-sur-Ciel at Aurora & Athena.
Highlights of the Aurora & Athena autumn sale on 17 October 2026: Bridget Tichenor, Nicholas Roerich, Konstantin Korovin, Gerard Sekoto, Jan Zrzavý, Pan Yuliang, a Miró lithograph and the painters of the École de Paris.
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