Fikret Saygi Moualla (Turkish, 1903-1967) Promenade à Cannes, 1959 Gouache on paper signed lower right and dated. Height 49.5, Width 59.5 cm (on view). Bibliography: Marc Ottavi & Kerem Topuz, "Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre de Fikret Moualla, tome I", 2019, very similar works illustrated p. 439. Fikret Moualla is today among the Turkish artists most appreciated by institutions and collectors. Yet his talent was not fully recognized until after his death in 1967. This bohemian life, between Turkey and Paris, alcoholic and on the fringes of the critics, contributed to his legend as a cursed artist. Trained as a painter at the French high school in Galatasaray, he had two passions: art and football. Influenced by the German expressionists, close to the studios of Othon Friesz and André Lhote, Moualla is an unclassifiable master of colour. An Ottoman interpreter of the Parisian avant-garde, the artist treats a small number of subjects in infinite variations. Card players, imaginary walks or reinvented during a trip to the Côte d'Azur, these four works from the same collection bear his vehement passion for colour.