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Martha Leonor (20th century) Le Chignon défait (Market Women), c. 1980's
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Details
Signed ‘Martha Leonor’ (lower right); titled ‘Le Chignon défait’ and numbered ‘No 20’ on the reverse.
Sizes:
Frame: 45 × 45 cm | 17.7 × 17.7 in
Artwork: 40 × 40 cm | 15.7 × 15.7 in
A market crowd seen through a haze of colour: women in shawls and long skirts sit and stand among their bundles and baskets, their faces turned towards us, while in the foreground a woman in a white dress and a pale headscarf walks away with her hair, the ‘chignon défait’ of the title, coming loose at the nape. The figures are drawn in loose, scratchy strokes over broad patches of ochre, rose and blue, and the whole square canvas glows like a sunlit textile.
The dress and the bundles suggest a Latin American market, Andean or Mexican, and the handling, oil applied thinly and dryly almost like pastel, gives the scene the look of a memory rather than a report. Titled and numbered by the artist on the reverse.
Provenance
Marc Labarbe, Toulouse, auction (label on the reverse).
Acquired in France.
Private Collection, Spain.
Condition Report
Oil on canvas, unlined, on its original stretcher. The paint layer is stable and clean; a few small spots of surface dust in the lower part. Presented in a plain white wooden frame. Please contact us to request a detailed Condition Report.
Shipping
Packed as size S (up to 60 × 50 cm) · 45 × 45 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)
- + €
Insurance is optional. It follows the final hammer price, so with insurance the total moves with the bidding. 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 | €200 | €200 | €300 |
| Buyer’s premium 25% (IVA included) | €50 | €50 | €75 |
| Total on auroraathena.com | €250 | €250 | €375 |
| Total through a bidding platform (30%) | €260 | €260 | €390 |
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%: the same hammer of €300 costs €390 there against €375 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 €200–€300 is our opinion of the range this work should reach; the starting price of €200 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 €200 the total is €250; at the low estimate of €200 the total is €250; at the high estimate of €300 the total is €375.
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%, so the same hammer of €300 costs €390 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 €200.
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.
Martha Leonor
Martha Leonor is a French painter of figures and scenes of the Midi, active from the 1960s, whose signed canvases pass regularly through the auction rooms of Lyon and the south: market women in shawls among their bundles, dancers and couples, still lifes, and the bullring, with titles in Spanish such as ‘El Fiero’ and ‘El toro que canta’ that place her among the painters of the tauromachy of Nîmes and Arles. Dated works are recorded from 1967 (‘Il s’agit sans doute d’Azraël’) and 1973, and she titles her pictures in French on the reverse with a running number, as an artist keeping a record of her own series (‘Désir contenu, 20’).
She paints in loose, dry strokes of oil over broad fields of ochre, rose and blue, almost like pastel, and her figures, in long skirts and headscarves, hover between the Camargue and Latin America.
A painter of that name is recorded at Nîmes; her dates and training have not been published, and we list the artist on the evidence of her signed and titled works. We would welcome any information from collectors or galleries who have handled her paintings.
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