225 - Marcel Soyez (born in 1931)

Marcel Soyez (born in 1931) Trees in Reflections, May 25, 1991 Watercolor, highlighted with black pencil Dedicated, signed, and dated by hand in the lower margin: “For Y.G., in memory of the first exhibition at Blanche de Castille,” signed “Soyez,” dated 91 Dimensions: Paper 29.7 × 21 cm (11 ⅝ × 8 ¼ in.) — Image: nearly full sheet Condition: good condition, unframed Provenance: Yves Guérin’s guestbook, compiled between 1963 and 1992 (provenance from a single collection). One of the later sheets in the album, from the collector’s Poissy circle in the early 1990s: it commemorates the artist’s first exhibition at the Espace Blanche de Castille in Poissy (Yvelines) on May 25, 1991. Description: A wooded riverbank—tall, slender trunks standing out against autumn foliage in shades of purple, ochre, and green—reflected in the calm water below, the reflection rendered as a shimmering, almost abstract weave of colors, the fluid washes enlivened by a bold black pencil line. Marcel Soyez, born in Douai in 1931 and trained at the Académie Charpentier and the École des Métiers d’Art in Paris, is a French figurative painter associated with the “subjective reality” group and was a long-time professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués (Knight of the Order of Academic Palms); woods, rocks, and calm waters, alongside the nude, are his favorite subjects—which makes this sheet thoroughly characteristic of his style. Signed, inscribed, and dated by hand.