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Léon Zack (1892-1980) Seated Figure with a Mirror, c. 1940's
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Details
Signed ‘Léon Zack’ in ink (lower right).
Sizes:
Frame: 49 × 31.5 cm | 19.3 × 12.4 in
Artwork: 41 × 24 cm | 16.1 × 9.4 in
A seated figure, drawn in a nervous, continuous pen line over a wash of grey, holds up a hand mirror and turns from it towards us; the drapery over the knees is scribbled in with the same restless pen, and the grey wash stops short of the edges of the sheet, leaving the figure in a lit cell of its own. It is a study in the pen-and-wash manner of Zack’s figurative years, before 1947, when he was illustrating books, designing for the theatre and painting religious subjects in a loose, expressive line descended from Rembrandt’s drawings and from Rouault.
Léon Zack (1892–1980), born near Nizhny Novgorod and settled in Paris from 1923, became after the war one of the painters of lyrical abstraction; his early drawings, of which this and the following lot are a pair in matching frames, show the hand before the abstraction.
Provenance
Private Collection, Alicante, Spain.
Condition Report
Pen and ink and grey wash on cream paper. The sheet is lightly toned, with a few small spots of foxing in the margins; framed under glass, not examined out of the frame. Please contact us to request a detailed Condition Report.
Shipping
Packed as size S (up to 60 × 50 cm) · 49 × 31.5 cm framed
- Transport and packing ()
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- Made-to-measure wooden crate (works over 20,000 €)
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€ (the low estimate to start)
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Insurance is optional. It follows the final hammer price, so with insurance the total moves with the bidding. The work is glazed, which the final quote may price differently. Indicative rates of our shipping partner MBE for packing and door-to-door transport; the final quote is confirmed after the sale. Import duties and taxes outside the EU are paid by the buyer.
We coordinate packing and shipping on your behalf, with insurance available if you’d like it — or you’re welcome to arrange your own. Please see our Shipping Information page for full details before completing your purchase.
Authenticity & Buyer Information
This lot is catalogued under the artist’s name without qualification. Provenance, dating and condition are described to the best of our knowledge; the sale is governed by our Conditions of Sale.
Buyers should review the catalogue carefully and raise any questions before bidding; additional information is not ordinarily provided after the auction.
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What it costs
Bidding on this site, the buyer’s premium is 25%, Spanish IVA included. There is no VAT on the hammer price and no card fee.
| Starting price | Low estimate | High estimate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hammer price | €300 | €300 | €500 |
| Buyer’s premium 25% (IVA included) | €75 | €75 | €125 |
| Total on auroraathena.com | €375 | €375 | €625 |
| Total through a bidding platform (30%) | €390 | €390 | €650 |
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%: the same hammer of €500 costs €650 there against €625 here. Shipping and insurance are quoted separately; the estimator below 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.
Questions about this lot
How does the estimate compare with the artist’s recent auction results?
The estimate of €300–€500 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.
What will this lot cost in total?
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 €300 the total is €375; at the high estimate of €500 the total is €625.
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%, so the same hammer of €500 costs €650 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.
How is this lot catalogued?
Under the artist’s name without qualification. Provenance, dating, condition and value are described to the best of our knowledge; the sale is governed by the Conditions of Sale.
Can I see the condition report, more photographs or the work itself?
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.
How does bidding work, and can a maximum bid make me overpay?
You can leave a maximum bid before the sale (the sale is on Saturday, November 28th - 17:00 (CET)) or bid live in our online room. A maximum bid is executed by the auctioneer only as much as is needed to stay ahead of other bidders, in the sale’s increments, never above your maximum.
Where a reserve exists it never exceeds the low estimate; a lot without a reserve sells to the highest bid at or above the starting price of €300.
Is there a limit on how much I can bid?
Every account is approved for bidding as soon as the e-mail address is confirmed, with a limit of €5,000 per bid until the identity is verified. The limit applies everywhere: in the live room, on the lot page and to maximum bids. To bid without a limit, verify your identity in your account on this site: it takes about three minutes on a phone, is done once, and the limit is lifted automatically as soon as the check is complete. Please do it at least an hour before the sale.
Léon Zack
Léon Zack was born in 1892 near Nizhny Novgorod. He studied literature at Moscow University and painting with Rerberg and Mashkov, published poetry under the name Khrisanf among the Moscow futurists, and left Russia in 1920 for Rome, Florence and Berlin, where he designed for the Russian Romantic Theatre, before settling in Paris in 1923. There he painted and drew in a loose, expressive figurative manner, illustrated books, designed for the ballet and, after his conversion to Catholicism, painted religious subjects; he became a French citizen in 1938 and spent the war years in hiding in the south.
After 1947 his work turned to abstraction, and from the 1950s he was one of the painters of the Paris school of lyrical abstraction, with large canvases of soft, floating forms in a few colours, close in spirit to Bazaine and Manessier.
He also made stained glass and mosaics for churches, including Notre-Dame-des-Pauvres at Issy-les-Moulineaux. He died at Vanves in 1980. His work is in the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme and museums across France; the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Orléans gave him a retrospective in 1988.
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