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• Auction House:
  Theodore Bruce
• Sale Name:
  Timed Online Auction | Art | Interesting & Affordable
• Sale Date:
  09 Jun 2022 ~ 6pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  6610
• Lot Description:
  Pierre Francis Daura
  (Spain, 1896-1976)
  Beauvois, France
  Watercolour
  63 x 47 cm, Frame: 67 x 51.5 cm
  Signed lower centre
  Condition: Age discoloured paper, staining & fading, original framing
• Provenance:
  Collection of James R Jackson (1882-1975); The Estate of Dora Toovey (1898-1986), thence by descent
• Notes:
  In 1929-30, Daura joined Michel Seuphor and Torres-Garcia in organizing the group Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square), which promoted geometric construction and abstraction in opposition to Surrealism. Cercle et Carré included Jean Arp, Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Antoine Pevsner, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Stella, Georges Vantongerloo, and others. Daura designed the group's logo, which appeared on stationary, posters, and the three issues of a review; Torres-Garcia also used it later for his C'rculo y Cuadrado (a name that also translates as Circle and Square) group in Uruguay. The only Cercle et Carré exhibition was held at Gallery 23, in Paris in April 1930. Virtually ignored by the French press at the time, Cercle et Carré is now considered of great importance in the history of modern art. The Dauras visited the medieval cliffside village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, France, whilst on their honeymoon in 1929. Daura had sketched in the village in 1914 and had admired the terracotta-roofed houses clustered around the towering church. One particular thirteenth-century house, although in bad condition, had especially intrigued him, and in 1929 he and Louise purchased it. They moved to St. Cirq in May 1930 and began the house restoration project that continued for most of their lives.Their only child, Martha, was born September 24, 1930. Daura won the St. Cecilia prize (4,000 pesetas) at a painting competition at the Monastery of Montserrat (Santa Maria de Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain), in 1931, and used the money for a painting trip to Deya (Deià), Mallorca, during the winter of 1931/32. Daura exhibited frequently in the years prior to the Spanish Civil War, with solo exhibitions in Paris at Gallery René Zivy in 1928, in Barcelona at Gallery Badrinas in 1929 and 1931, at Gallery Syra 1932 and 1933, at Gallery Barcino in 1935. Daura, with his family, made his first trip to the United States in 1934-35, where he and Martha met Louise's family. Many Virginia landscapes he painted during this period were sold at the Gallery Barcino exhibition in Barcelona. In February 1937, at the age of forty-one, Daura joined the Republican militia to fight against General Francisco Franco's forces. He was forward artillery observer and was seriously wounded on the Teruel Front in August 1937. Sent home to France to convalesce, Daura was given a medical discharge, because he refused to return to Spain after the war, his Spanish citizenship (and Martha's) was revoked by the Franco government, which emerged victorious. Daura was a friend of James R Jackson's & visited the Jackson family on a trip to Australia
• Estimate:
  A$300 - 500
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.