Pierre-albert Bégaud (1901-1956) End Of A Card Game Nude Portrait Of A Woman

Pierre-Albert BÉGAUD
(Bordeaux 1901 - 1956)
Fin de partie
Huile sur toile
H. 27 cm; L. 46.5 cm
Signed lower right

Pierre-Albert Bégaud was a French portrait and landscape painter born in Bordeaux. His large-scale frescoes were used to decorate Bordeaux's Bourse du Travail and Bourse Maritime. He belongs to the generation of Aquitaine artists of the interwar period, sought after for their landscape and portrait works. He is particularly renowned for his depictions of the Basque country, which always treat the Pyrenean countryside, its buildings and its atmosphere with excellent feeling.

Professor at the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts, he enjoys a very high profile in his native city. In 2006, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death, the artist's family bequeathed a major collection of drawings to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, and on this occasion a book retraces the painter's career and life, in Le cœur et la raison, published by Editions du Festin.

Our nude, which is "just a' nude at first glance, is actually a scene and a story. Wrapped in seemingly endless blue-and-white sheets, this totally nude female body is dozing. The face and ample blond hair are resting on the forearm, while the feet are still tucked under the sheet. In front of this young woman, several playing cards are laid out, including the ace and queen of hearts... This display resembles the end of a card game, finished under the sheets.