79 - Augustin LESAGE (Saint-Pierre-lez-Auchel 1876 – Burbure 1954)

Augustin LESAGE (Saint-Pierre-lez-Auchel 1876 – Burbure 1954) Composition, 1947 Oil on canvas mounted on hardboard 76.5 x 98 cm Signed and dated lower right: A Lesage 1947 We would like to thank Mr. Pierre Guénégan for confirming the authenticity of this work. A certificate of authenticity may be issued at the purchaser’s request. The 1910s thus marked the beginning of his career as a painter, at a time when medicine and psychiatry were intersecting with the field of artistic creation as a new area of study. In 1926, Lesage exhibited at the Salon des Beaux-Arts in the architecture section and, in November, at the Salon d’Automne. At the Salon des Beaux-Arts, Lesage presented two Symbolic Compositions on the Spiritual World, and at the Salon d’Automne, *The Spirit of the Pyramid*, which reflects the painter’s growing interest in the divine and in Egypt, far beyond the concerns traditionally explored by artists associated with art brut. Through a meticulously crafted approach, he sought to convey his experience stemming from a higher, divine principle, as well as what he believed he had experienced in Egypt during a previous life. The works we are presenting at auction—*Composition, or The Thought of God* and *Composition* from 1947—fit perfectly within this line of thought. Although the artist is associated with the Art Brut movement, he demonstrates a particular attention to historical and iconographic knowledge. In *Composition, or The Thought of God*, the figure of Christ carrying his cross blends with a skillfully orchestrated rhythm. The artist combines economy and precision of gesture, small impastoed and juxtaposed brushstrokes, and figurative and mystical references… These works are constructed symmetrically and offer an almost kaleidoscopic appearance. Bibliography: Pierre Guénégan, Augustin Lesage, *Catalogue Raisonné de l’Œuvre Peinte*, Sainte Maxime, Lanwell & Leeds Ltd, 2026, page 325, number AL193, reproduced in black and white (with incorrect dimensions)