Symbolist Pastel By André Beaudin, 1928

A French painter, engraver, and sculptor belonging to the School of Paris, whose work follows in the footsteps of Cubism, bordering on abstraction. Beaudin held his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1923 at the Percier Gallery, with a preface by Max Jacob. His painting was later championed by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and he exhibited regularly in France and abroad, participating in the major group exhibitions of painters of the School of Paris after the war.
“His color possesses a kind of transparent quality, that of reflection: it is not timid, but restrained. Form is expressed with color but is never an aggressive ‘coloration,’ for the glory and illustration of the latter. It seems inhabited from within, experiencing the moments of a birth, the pigments suspended in a light substance. He does not impasto—quite the contrary—; the color builds itself around the grain, the whiteness of the canvas, the support (...). These are rather murmuring colors, like a spring emerging from the earth. Naturally, they are also few in number in each work.” — Reynold Arnould, preface to André Beaudin, works 1921–1970, Grand Palais, Centre national d’art contemporain, Paris, 1970 (pp. 17–18).
Our work is dedicated, signed, and dated: To Yvonne, with love, A. Beaudin 1928. The reverse of the sheet bears Philippe Soubies' collector's stamp; on the back of the mount are Soubies' wax seal and stamp, as well as the previous provenance: Pierre Cruège collection. A slight tear at the margin; see photo of the back.