Attributed to Auguste Herbin (1882 - 1960)
Auguste Herbin (1882 1960) is one of the founding fathers of geometric constructivist art in France. He grew up at a time when impressionism was still considered novel and revolutionary. Herbin painted impressionist pictures as well as fauvist and cubist ones. It was between 1906 and 1907 that he fully embraced Fauvism. While he had focused on still life and flowers during the preceding years, it was during this period that he turned towards the landscape and street scenes. Our painting below is believed to date from this time as it is characterized by a vigorous brushwork despite the relatively sober, restrained scene of the rural place it depicts.
In March 1907 he exhibited at the Salon des Independants alongside works by Derain, Vlaminck and Braque. Herbin experienced several important changes throughout his career, discovering his own geometrically abstract language of forms in the 1943 phase, in the development of modern art.
Herbins work is present in many major museums and galleries, amongst which the Tate Gallery, London; the Hood Museum of Art, New Hampshire; Musee Matisse.
This is a charming painting, in excellent condition, which comes with the original frame of the Thiele Galerie in Hamburg which owned it in the 1950s.
"Sitting at a Cafe"
Oil on Canvas cm 40 x cm 30.5 approx (canvas only)
cm 47 x cm 37.5 approx (framed)
Acquired by a private collector in the UK.
