Suzanne Roger, Couple Reading, Drawing, 20th Century

Drawing depicting two figures sitting with their backs to a wall and smoking a pipe. One of them is holding an open book. The lines are simple and the decoration is stripped down, with only two stylized flowers visible on the left.


Signed “Suzanne Roger” lower right.
A label from the Galerie Simon, mentioning the title, year of creation and inventory number of the work, is visible on the back.


Suzanne Roger (1898-1986) was a French artist trained at the Académie Ranson by Paul Sérusier and Maurice Denis, both members of the Nabis group. In 1923, through the intermediary of Juan Gris and Max Jacob, she joined the Galerie Simon, where she was the only woman exhibited. Run by the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, a great promoter of the Cubist movement, the gallery represented renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, André Derain and George Braque. With her husband André Beaudin, also a painter, Suzanne Roger took part in the “Boulogne Sundays” organized by Kahnweiler at his home, where the intellectual and artistic elite of the time met, including Erik Satie, Le Corbusier, André Malraux, Tristan Tzara, and the writer Georges Limbour, who described the young artist as “the feminine Fernand Léger.” From 1937, she began to exhibit internationally and in 1941 took part in the exhibition “Twenty Young Painters of French Tradition.” Organized during the Occupation at the Braun Gallery, it was the first exhibition of French avant-garde painting openly opposed to the Nazi ideology of “degenerate art.” When Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's daughter-in-law, Louise Leiris, bought the Galerie Simon and renamed it after herself to avoid its closure following the enactment of discriminatory laws against Jews by the Vichy regime, Suzanne Roger continued to exhibit there until 1979. A posthumous exhibition of her work was also organized there in 1986 and in 1998 for the centenary of her birth.

Her style is characterized by a refined design, a reduced color range and a simplification of space, thus fitting into the Cubist movement. His works are populated by automaton-like characters, whose anatomy is made up of juxtaposed geometric shapes.


A watermark, difficult to decipher, is visible in the paper.
Small stains and slight creases in the paper.
Good general condition.
From the 20th century.


Dimensions:
Framed: 61 x 75.5 cm
View (sheet): 47 x 61.5 cm