Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Kees van Dongen
Madame Flore Lesieur by Kees van Dongen

1939

About the Item

Kees van Dongen 1877-1968 Dutch-French Madame Flore Lesieur Signed "van Dongen" (upper left) Oil on canvas "You have to want to touch a painting, for it to be a pleasure for all the senses." –Kees van Dongen This captivating portrait by Kees van Dongen embodies the glamour and sophistication of Parisian high society, beautifully portrayed through his subject, Madame Flore Lesieur, the wife of aviation innovator Henri Lesieur. Painted in 1939, Van Dongen's mastery of vibrant color and rich texture is on full display, as he elegantly fuses modernist sensibilities with the timeless charm of classical portraiture. While van Dongen painted iconic celebrities such as Josephine Baker and Brigitte Bardot, his portraits of Parisian socialites of the early 20th century remain among his most important. Madame Flore is depicted in a flowing and feathery white gown, enhanced by a sumptuous fur coat that nearly jumps off the canvas to marvelous effect. The angelic white ang gray tones that dominate the canvas are expertly punctuated by her bright teal sash, glowing skin, and alluring red lips, cheeks and hair—emphasizing Van Dongen's ability to elevate beauty and femininity in a manner that feels both luxurious and avant-garde. Her wide, expressive eyes—an iconic hallmark of van Dongen’s portraiture—immediately draw the viewer in, evoking both a sense of intimacy and the artist’s fascination with the female form. Every element of this portrait exudes elegance and sophistication, a fitting tribute to one of the most influential women of her time. Flore Lesieur, portrayed here with a delicate grace, was not only celebrated for her own social stature but also for her connection to her husband’s trailblazing work with Air France in the post-World War II era. These included launching trans-Atlantic passenger services and introducing innovative sleeper flights, revolutionizing commercial aviation. His accomplishments, such as overseeing Air France’s move to New York’s Idlewild Airport (now JFK) and receiving the prestigious title of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, marked him as a leader in his field. The Lesieurs later relocated to Miami Beach, where they continued to shape society through their philanthropic initiatives. Together, they established the Henri and Flore Lesieur Foundation and endowed the Henri and Flore Lesieur Chair in Ophthalmology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, leaving an enduring legacy. Van Dongen received his early artistic training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam and later moved to Paris in the early 1900s. After settling in the Montmartre district, then the artistic hub of the city, van Dongen found himself immersed in an environment that stimulated his creativity and inspired him to begin exhibiting his paintings. Even in his earliest shows his works were showcased alongside the artistic masters of the day. At the 1905 Salon d'Automne, van Dongen's paintings were hung in the same gallery as the highly esteemed artist Henri Matisse, a deep honor for the younger van Dongen. Importantly, it was from this pivotal showing that the Fauves—the "wild beasts" of the early 1900s—were born. Matisse had pioneered the Fauvist technique, exemplified by intensely expressive colors and bold brushwork. Van Dongen's early paintings bore the hallmarks of this explosive expression, ushering him into the circle of the leading avant-garde painters of the day. An artist whose career was defined by coloristic expression and unyielding originality, Kees van Dongen and his unique style grabbed the attention of early 20th-century art connoisseurs, ranking him among the leading modernists of the era. Above all, van Dongen was dedicated to the subject of the modern urban woman, and they remained central to his output throughout his career. Today, van Dongen's artworks grace museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, among others. This work will be included in the forthcoming van Dongen Digital Catalogue Raisonné by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute. Painted 1939 Canvas: 43 1/2" high x 35 1/2" wide (110.49 x 90.17 cm) Framed: 50 1/4" high x 42 3/4" wide x 3" deep (127.64 x 107.63 x 7.62 cm) Provenance: Madame Flore Lesieur (the sitter) Private Collection, Paris (by descent) Bass Museum of Art, Miami Private collection
  • Creator:
    Kees van Dongen (1877-1968, Dutch)
  • Creation Year:
    1939
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 50.25 in (127.64 cm)Width: 42.375 in (107.64 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New Orleans, LA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 32-01551stDibs: LU18615332912

More From This Seller

View All
L'Hortensia by Jean Pierre Cassigneul
By Jean-Pierre Cassigneul
Located in New Orleans, LA
Jean-Pierre Cassigneul b.1935 French L'Hortensia (The Hortensia) Signed “Cassigneul” (lower right) Oil on canvas Jean Pierre Cassigneul’s L'Hortensia captures an elegant woman se...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Femme aux Souliers Noir (Woman in Black Shoes)
By Jules Pascin
Located in New Orleans, LA
This intimate portrait was composed by the Bulgarian-born French Expressionist painter Jules Pascin. Known as the "Prince of Montparnasse," Pascin made a name for himself throughout ...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Sleuth By Joseph Christian Leyendecker
By Joseph Christian Leyendecker
Located in New Orleans, LA
Joseph Christian Leyendecker 1874-1951 | American The Sleuth Saturday Evening Post Cover, June 2, 1906 Signed "JCLeyendecker" (lower left) Oil on canvas A debonair sleuth peers t...
Category

Early 20th Century Other Art Style Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Buste d'homme barbu by Pablo Picasso
By Pablo Picasso
Located in New Orleans, LA
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 Spanish Buste d'homme barbu (Bust of a Bearded Man) Signed "Picasso" (upper right) and dated "8.4.65" (en verso) Oil on canvas Pablo Picasso and his work transcend art history: they have achieved global celebrity within both academic circles and popular culture. More than any other artist, his ever-evolving, evocative style has come to define modern art of the 20th century, and to this day he continues to gain recognition. The most compelling of his works offer a glimpse into the psyche of the master himself, and the present work can be counted among these. Combining saturated color with a jarring simplicity, Buste d'homme barbu represents an important series of bearded men portraits that the artist composed during the last few years of his life. These works are among the most highly personal and intimate of his career, and they serve as remarkable examples of his mature style with their highly modern expressivity. Many of Picasso's works from his last years capture the visage of his wife Jacqueline, who was his chief model during this period. In April, however, at his home studio in Mougins, France, Picasso changed direction and produced a series of individual portraits of men. His male subjects derive from various sources. Often they were self-referential portraits; often they referenced his father, Spanish painter José Ruiz...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Blackstone Cigars
By Norman Rockwell
Located in New Orleans, LA
A charming relic of a bygone era, this rare oil is the work of the inimitable American illustrator, Norman Rockwell. The iconic artist’s ability to render the details and nuances of ...
Category

Early 20th Century Other Art Style Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Twelve Princesses
By Gustave-Max Stevens
Located in New Orleans, LA
The greatest triumph of the artist’s career, this extraordinary and monumental oil on canvas by Gustave-Max Stevens perfectly represents the highly detailed compositions and richly h...
Category

Late 19th Century Academic Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Russin
By Vilma Eckl
Located in Wien, 9
The extensive work of Vilma Eckl covers a period of more than seventy years. Her incomparable artistic talent and her essential contribution to the history of art can be seen in her ...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1970s Big Eyed Waif Sad Child with Scarf Oil Painting
By Erbert Mule
Located in Surfside, FL
1970s Italian (based on the inscription, the artist's name sounds German or Austrian) big eyed waif crying little boy painting. from the era of Jea...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

British Modernist Portrait of Chaim Weizmann President of Israel Oil Painting
By Alfred Aaron Wolmark
Located in Surfside, FL
Alfred Aaron Wolmark (1877 – 1961) was a painter and decorative artist. He was a Post Impressionist and a pioneer of the New Movement in Art. He was born Aaron Wolmark into a Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland who were amongst the many subsequently fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe. The family moved to Devon when he was six before moving to Spitalfields, East London, there along with many other Jewish immigrant émigré families. He became a British citizen in 1894. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited there from 1901-1936. (1895-8 (1st Silver Medallist for Drawing). There he took the name Alfred Wolmark, by which he is known. Returning briefly to Poland in 1903, he painted works based his Jewish identity and faith, refraining from depicting the persecution and anti-Semitism his family witnessed on the continent and idealising the peaceful and contemplative elements of his religion. His first one-man exhibition was held at the Bruton Galleries in 1905. In July 1911, after an artistic epiphany on honeymoon in Concarneau, Brittany, he became influenced by modern French painting, his colour palette and style became post impressionist, and Wolmark jettisoned his early methods in favour of the pioneering 'colourist' path that he followed for the next two decades of his working life. He was a British fauvist and pitched his tonal divisions to a higher key than any of his contemporaries. Wolmark kept to traditional genre, and transformed his subjects through the use of flattened forms, built up with a heavy impasto. His daring use of bright colour on some paintings such as "An Arrangement: Group of Nudes" demonstrate a skillset akin to Andy Warhol and earned him the title of ‘The Colour King’. the early colourist, Alfred Wolmark, the so-called father of the ‘Whitechapel Boys’. This group includes painters David Bomberg, Mark Gertler and Jacob Kramer, as well as (by association) the sculptor Jacob Epstein, First World War poet-painter, Isaac Rosenberg, and the only ‘Whitechapel Girl’ Clare Winsten...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

figurative painting with a naked beauty and flowers delicate flowers
Located in Zofingen, AG
the picture is beautiful. If you love flowers this is the picture for you. Tenderness and love.
Category

2010s Modern Nude Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1947 Expressionist Oil Painting Flute Player Musician Boris Deutsch WPA Artist
By Boris Deutsch
Located in Surfside, FL
Boris Deutsch (American Lithuanian Russian, 1892-1978) "The Flute Player," 1947 Oil paint on canvas, Hand signed and dated upper left, Provenance: gallery label (Pasadena Art Museu...
Category

1920s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

J. Raito Harlequin Portrait ~ in the style of Picasso
Located in San Francisco, CA
Portrait of harlequin in the style of Picasso by J. Raito Oil on canvas 20" x 24" unframed 21.25" x 25.25" w/frame
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All