Léopold SURVAGE (Moscou 1879 - Paris 1968)

Character in the city Circa 1919-1920 Oil on canvas 81 x 46 cm Signed lower left "Survage On the back of the stretcher, transport label for the loan to the Philippe Soupault exhibition in 1989 Also an old label with the handwritten inscription "Survage 26 rue des plantes Paris 14e Also a label with the number 28 Provenance: Private collection, Paris Exhibition : Philippe Soupault, le voyageur magnétique, January 8-February 28, 1989, exhibition center, Montreuil, no. 263. Bibliography : Serge Fauchereau, Philippe Soupault, le voyageur magnétique, Éditions cercle d'art, Paris, 1989, reproduced p. 151, no. 263. Jeanine Warnod, Léopold Survage, André de Roche Éditeur, Brussels, 1983, reproduced p. 60. "It was in 1908 that Léopold Sturzwage (1879-1968) came to Paris from Moscow. He changed his name to Survage during the Great War. He was linked to the Cubists and in particular to Archipenko. In 1912-1913, he created the colored rhythm, the first attempt at abstract animation, the principles of which he exhibited in Les Soirées de Paris. Despite the support of Apollinaire and Cendrars, he did not manage to impose his invention. Taking the word surrealist used by Apollinaire to designate Les Mamelles de Tirésias, he applied it to his own work derived from cubism and made some Surrealist Compositions (1917-1919). Survage continued to work stubbornly in his own way without public recognition ever coming to him. Philippe Soupault knew Survage since their common collaboration at SIC in 1917 and always loved the man and the artist: "Survage was silent, friendly and faithful. He always worked with ardor and enthusiasm. He was restless, not sure of himself. He was well aware that he was not given enough attention, but he was not bitter." (Twenty Thousand and One Days.) Soupault, who had expressed great esteem for Survage several times, would salute him one last time in Les Lettres françaises the day after his death." Serge Fauchereau, Philippe Soupault, le voyageur magnétique, Paris, Éditions cercle d'art, 1989, p. 150.