Lot 118: Manuel Rendón (1894-1980) , Dos Personajes (Madre e Hija)

oil on canvas signed lower left

measurements 28 7/8 by 23 5/8 in. alternate measurements (73.3 by 60 cm)

Galería de Todo Arte, Guayaquil

Painted in 1926.We wish to thank Sr. Juan Castro y Velásquez for his kind assistance in confirming the authenticity of this lot.
Born and educated in Paris of Ecuadorian parents, Manuel Rendón is considered one of Ecuador?s modern masters and is credited with introducing informal or lyrical abstraction to Ecuadorian painting. Executed in 1926 while Rendón was still living in Paris, Dos personajes (Madre e hija) reveals the artist?s characteristic semi-abstract style comprised of segmented or modulated areas of color reminiscent of the effects of medieval stained-glass widows. However, unlike the often rigid geometric forms associated with this medieval tradition, Rendón?s forms are rendered as curvilinear geometric shapes that imbue his work with a graceful sense of delicacy and rhythm. In this painting, two female figures emerge in the center from within a series of spiraling forms that formally accentuate the familial relationship between the two women by literally engulfing them or drawing them in closer within this lyrical composition. The faces of both figures are rendered in a manner quite characteristic of Rendón?s work from between 1926 and 1930?a body of work exhibited at Leonce Rosenberg?s Galeria de L?Effort Moderne in Paris. Amidst the toasted sienna yellow spirals, the two bodies are rendered with wide elongated swirls, elevated by means of an application of intensely red tones. A right hand appears from the lower part of the painting, extending towards the center, and projects itself towards the right in a gesture of repose or perhaps as an offering from the mother to the daughter. The subject of this painting may be seen as a biographical reference to the artist?s wife, Paulette Everard de Rendón, whose daughter from her first husband Philippe Chabaneix, Hélène, died prematurely in 1938. Married to Rendón at the time of her daughter?s death, the events marked Paulette for the rest of her life and Hélène was rarely or ever discussed again. Dos personajes (Madre e hija) may have been intended as a loving portrait of Paulette and Hélène and in retrospect may be seen as a tender homage or offering from the artist to his beloved wife and her young daughter. Juan Castro y Velázquez