Lot 40: AUGUSTIN LESAGE (1876-1954)

Composition Symbolique signed and dated '1928 A. Lesage' (lower center), titled 'Composition Symbolique' (center) oil and graphite on canvas 48 x 371/2 in. (127 x 95 cm.) Painted in 1928. EXHIBITION New York, Katonah Museum of Art, Private Worlds: Classic Outsider Art from Europe, December 1998-February 1999. Chicago, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Eight From Europe: A Study Collection, April 2002-April 2003, (illustrated in color on announcement card). NOTES An important French visionary artist, Augustin Lesage began making his densely detailed works after an epiphany in 1911: "All of a sudden I heard a voice, a very clear voice, that said: 'One day you will be a painter.' I looked all around to see where the voice was coming from. There was nobody there. I was quite alone." Unlike many other Self-Taught artists, his works are art historically aware and are packed with reference to other cultures and religions, particularly Egyptian art. Indeed, he later contended that he was a reincarnated artist from the time of the Pharaohs. The obsessive amalgamation of saints and angels, presented with iconic frontality lends Composition Symbolique the feeling of a surrealist-imbued altarpiece.