Two sculptures by Jean Chauvin from the 1920s are offered for sale at Artcurial on May 23, 2017, from a period when the originality of his art was recognized by the keenest observers of French artistic life.
Untitled, lot 73 (before 1929) — Monoxyle sculpture in blackened wood on a quadrangular base. Direct carving. Height: 45 cm (53 cm with base). Signed on the lower body. This work was previously known only from a period photograph taken by Chauvin himself and annotated on the back "Collection Jacques Doucet". Estimated at €30,000 to €40,000, it sold for €195,000.
The work appears in a photograph published in L'Illustration on May 3, 1930, showing Jacques Doucet's studio on rue Saint-James in Neuilly, where it sits in the corner of the room on André Groult's pedestal table in wood, shagreen and ivory, alongside works by Picasso, Braque, Modigliani and Chirico.
Art historian Robert Rey characterized Chauvin's 1920s practice as representing "a symbolic and religious eroticism" with "beautiful forms, of an attractive esotericism and great harmony of contours."
Untitled, lot 74 (circa 1914) — Bronze with brown patina with green nuances. Height: 27 cm. Base: 16.6 × 11.1 cm. Inscribed "Pour mon ami Pompon de tout cœur. Chauvin". Unnumbered copy, Valsuani foundry cast before 1928, bearing the foundry stamp. Estimated at €20,000 to €30,000, sold for €53,300.
This bronze was given by Chauvin to sculptor François Pompon in 1926. Upon Pompon's death in 1933, the work was returned to Chauvin by the estate executor, then gifted to art historian Robert Rey with accompanying correspondence. The work was exhibited at the gallery Au Sacre du Printemps in 1928, at the Fondation de Coubertin in 1992, and at the Despiau-Wlérick museum in Mont-de-Marsan in 1993.
Bibliography: Denys Chevalier, Chauvin sculptures (1974), p. 3; Catherine Chevillot et al., Pompon (1994), p. 83; Paul Mas, Chauvin sculpteur (2007), piece no. 4.