See it on your real wall in AR
Scan to open on your phone, then tap “View in AR”.
Get Notified
Be the first to know about new works by Roger de La Fresnaye.
Roger de La Fresnaye (1885-1925) Six Drawings: Landscapes and Portraits, 1920-1921
New accounts are approved at once and can bid up to €5,000 per bid; verify your identity in your account to bid without a limit.
Ask on WhatsAppBid on this lot
Already have an account? Sign in and you’ll come straight back to this lot.
Create an account to place a pre-auction bid. We’ll email you a 6-digit code to confirm your address.
Confirm your bid
Confirm your bid of €2,000.
If you win at €2,000 you will pay ≈ €2,500 incl. 25% buyer's premium.
Your maximum bid
We bid for you, one step at a time, only as far as needed and never above this figure. Other bidders never see it.
Minimum 2,000 €. Bids step by 250 €.
Withdraw your bid
Withdraw your maximum bid of €0 on Lot 27? This cannot be undone.
Details
Each sheet signed ‘La Fresnaye’ and dated ‘1920’, ’21’, ‘8/21’ or ‘4/21’ in the lower margin; one portrait inscribed with a name.
Sizes:
Frame: 44 × 31.5 cm (17.3 × 12.4 in) (the landscape with cypresses and the church with horses); 46 × 33 cm (18.1 × 13 in) (the four sheets of portrait heads)
Artwork: Six drawings in two frames, 44 × 31.5 cm (17.3 × 12.4 in) and 46 × 33 cm (18.1 × 13 in) with frames
Six sheets in two gilt frames from the last years of Roger de La Fresnaye, when, his lungs ruined by the war, he had retired to Grasse with his friend the painter Jean-Louis Gampert and drew more than he painted. In the first frame two pen landscapes: a view over the hills and cypresses of Grasse with a couple in the foreground and a man resting on a rock, dated 1920, and a village church with horses at a trough and a farmer, dated 1921. In the second frame four heads: two in soft crayon on buff paper dated August and April 1921, a woman in profile and a young man full-face in an open collar, and two pen studies of pairs of men’s heads, one of them with the cubist faceting of the mouths and collars that La Fresnaye kept from his pre-war manner.
The nervous, looping pen line, the heads built from a few curved strokes, the sudden geometry in a cheek or a collar, are the marks of the Grasse drawings, of which the Centre Pompidou and the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Mans hold the best-known examples; the portraits of Gampert and the sketches of friends and neighbours filled his sketchbooks in these years.
Provenance
Aletheia Subastas, Spain, sale 45, lot 327 (label on the reverse).
Private Collection, Alicante, Spain.
Condition Report
Pen and ink and crayon on paper, six sheets mounted and framed under glass in two gilt frames; the sheets lightly toned, the buff sheets with small spots; not examined out of the frames, and the technique is described as it appears through the glass. Please contact us to request a detailed Condition Report.
Shipping
Packed as size S (up to 60 × 50 cm) · 44 × 31.5 cm framed
- Transport and packing ()
- €
- Made-to-measure wooden crate (works over 20,000 €)
- €
-
€ (the low estimate to start)
- + €
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.
Full Shipping Support
We coordinate professional, insured shipping worldwide, for auction and gallery purchases alike.
Expert-Curated Selection
Every lot is reviewed and vetted by our specialists before it reaches a sale.
Secure Payment
Pay by card for purchases up to €10,000, or by secure bank transfer for larger amounts.
Inquire about this lot
Have a question about this work?
Fill out the form below and our team will get back to you shortly.
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 | €2,000 | €2,500 | €4,000 |
| Buyer’s premium 25% (IVA included) | €500 | €625 | €1,000 |
| Total on auroraathena.com | €2,500 | €3,125 | €5,000 |
| Total through a bidding platform (30%) | €2,600 | €3,250 | €5,200 |
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%: the same hammer of €4,000 costs €5,200 there against €5,000 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 €2,500–€4,000 is our opinion of the range this work should reach; the starting price of €2,000 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 €2,000 the total is €2,500; at the low estimate of €2,500 the total is €3,125; at the high estimate of €4,000 the total is €5,000.
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%, so the same hammer of €4,000 costs €5,200 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 €2,000.
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.
Roger de La Fresnaye
Roger de La Fresnaye was born at Le Mans in 1885 into an old Norman noble family and studied in Paris at the Académie Julian, the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Ranson under Maurice Denis and Sérusier. From 1910 he was one of the painters who took Cubism out of the studios of Picasso and Braque and into the Salons: a member of the Section d’Or group with Gleizes, Metzinger and the Duchamp brothers, he built his pictures from clear planes of bright colour rather than the browns of analytical Cubism, and ‘The Conquest of the Air’ of 1913, now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is the masterpiece of that lyrical, patriotic Cubism.
He enlisted in 1914, contracted tuberculosis in the trenches in 1918 and never recovered his strength.
From 1920 he lived at Grasse with his friend the painter Jean-Louis Gampert, drawing and painting in a new manner, classical and linear, with pen-and-ink landscapes of the hills, portraits of friends and self-portraits whose nervous line keeps a trace of his Cubist faceting. He died at Grasse in 1925, aged forty. His work is in the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art moderne de Troyes (collection Pierre Lévy), the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Mans and the great American museums.
Related Lots
What collectors say about us
“The description and photos of the artwork were accurate, and I felt confident in my purchase from the beginning. The team was quick to answer my questions and kept me well informed throughout the process.”
“I had a really good experience after the sale — it was smooth, asked a question and got an answer right away. Their customer service is excellent and very fast. Definitely recommend them.”