Lot 143: Basil Ivan Rakoczi (1908-1979) PECHEUR AUX FILETS (FISHERMAN WITH NETS) signed lower left; inscribed with title, date [1956] and artist's reference

Basil Ivan Rakoczi (1908-1979) PECHEUR AUX FILETS (FISHERMAN WITH NETS) signed lower left; inscribed with title, date [1956] and artist's reference no. 2242 on reverse oil on canvas 71 by 53cm., 28 by 21in. Exhibited: 'Basil Ivan Rakoczi (1908-1979)', Gorry Gallery, Dublin, 30 May - 12 June 1996, catalogue no. 25 In the catalogue to the above exhibition Dr S. B. Kennedy notes that this is a cubist inspired work, and that "the treatment of the figure, as with a good deal of early Cubism, is clearly indebted to native African sculptures which Rakoczi would have known both from the Trocadero Museum in Paris and Picasso's work (cf. Nude in the Forest, La Grande Dryade, 1908, Hermitage, St Petersburg) of the early years of the century. The theme of the fisherman - which here may be autobiographical or perhaps biblical (cf. pecheur, 'sinner') and fishing in general, is one to which Rakoczi returned from time to time during his career".