Henri HAYDEN (1883-1970). Landscape near Sanary, circa 1925. - Lot 65

Henri HAYDEN (1883-1970). Landscape near Sanary, circa 1925. Oil on canvas signed lower right. 58 x 70 cm. Provenance: Private collection, manor house in the Gaillon region. A certificate from Mme Laurence Le Cieux, president of the Comité Henri Hayden, will be given to the buyer. Biography: Henri Hayden was born in Warsaw into a family of wealthy merchants of Jewish origin who converted to Protestantism to circumvent the restrictions affecting Jews in Eastern Europe. Under parental pressure, he studied engineering at the Warsaw Polytechnic in 1902, enrolling at the School of Fine Arts at the same time. In 1907, he moved to a studio on boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris, and for several months in 1908 attended the La Palette painting academy, where Georges Desvallières and Charles Guérin taught. However, he essentially worked alone. Every summer, Hayden went to Brittany in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin, first to Pont-Aven in 1908, then to Le Pouldu, from 1909 to 1912, where he befriended the Polish painter Wlasyslaw Smewinski. From 1912 onwards, his admiration for Cézanne was such that his work up to 1914 was described as his "Cézanne period". He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and Galerie Druet. During the First World War, Hayden frequented the Cubists, particularly Juan Gris and Jacques Lipchitz. Portraits of musicians and still lifes were central to his work. His autograph appears on one of the sheets signed by the guests at the memorable banquet given in honor of Apollinaire at the Ancien Palais d'Orléans on Avenue du Maine on December 31, 1916. In the 1920s, influenced by the "Retour à l'ordre" movement, the artist abandoned cubism for a more personal and flexible style of painting, devoted essentially to landscapes. Our work is part of this period. During the Second World War, Hayden fled Paris with his wife Josette, taking refuge in the south of France. It was in Roussillon that he met the playwright Samuel Beckett, who was to become his great friend. When the war was over, the two artists met frequently in Seine-et-Marne, where they had bought houses. This was the beginning of Hayden's so-called blossoming phase, characterized by arbitrary colors and simplified graphics. The artist nevertheless remained figurative, and his main themes were still lifes and Brie landscapes. His growing renown led to an exhibition in 1968 at the Musée d'Art Moderne, inaugurated by André Malraux.