Henry Hayden, FLOWERS IN THE CART, 1930

81.2 x 65.0cm - oil, canvas signed l.d.: Hayden. | 30

On the reverse, on the lower loom strip, stamp with number referring to the size of the sub-painting: 5F; on the right loom strip, stamp with number: BB413; above, fragments of two stickers; on the upper loom strip, number (in pen): 5/6.



At the beginning of his creative adventure in France, Hayden made several trips to Brittany, where he came into contact with Wladyslaw Slewinski and the Pont-Aven school. Then, around 1915, he met the representatives of Cubism in Paris: Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, Jean Jacques Lipchitz and Jean Metzinger. This trend dominated Hayden's painting for several years, but it did not reflect his painterly soul. In 1922, he abandoned Cubist forms and returned to classical representational art.

The presented Flowers in a Basket, dated 1930, clearly indicate the artist's return to the assumptions of syntheticism characteristic of the Pont-Aven school. Flower compositions, along with landscapes, became the main motif of his paintings. He depicted them with particular sensitivity and virtuosity. He placed his bouquets in ordinary glass or clay vases, less often in decorative porcelains or baskets. Hayden, following Slevinsky's example, placed flowers on tables or chairs. He never treated them as an element of interior decoration, but approached them as if they were being portrayed. Each species depicted by the artist on his canvases can easily be botanically identified, even though they are treated synthetically. Hayden does not reproduce every leaf or petal with photographic precision. On the contrary, he creates impressionistic "portraits" of bouquets. We encounter floral compositions throughout Hayden's long creative life.

Our Flowers is characterized by a soft brush duct subtly modeling individual shapes. The subdued color palette, based mainly on greens and yellows, with delicate touches of purple, pink and blue, emphasizes the harmony of the entire composition. Meanwhile, the narrow framing and dark background, from which a bouquet of assorted flowers emerges, are reminiscent of 17th-century Flemish still lifes.



♣ A fee will be added to the auctioned price in addition to other costs, based on the right of the artist and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Law of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite)

Henryk Hayden (Warsaw 1883 - Paris 1970) was one of the most prominent painters of Polish origin associated with the École de Paris milieu. He began his artistic studies at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts; in parallel he also studied at the Warsaw Polytechnic. In 1907 he left for Paris, where he still enrolled in the Académie "La Palette." Since 1908 he often traveled to Brittany, getting in touch with W. Ślewiński there. After 1915, he became associated with the circle of the Parisian artistic avant-garde, including P. Picasso, J. Gris, G. Severini or H. Matisseem. In France he remained permanently. In 1920 he visited his family in Poland, but his ties with the country were quite loose - he only rarely sent paintings to exhibitions. On the other hand, he exhibited a lot in France; from 1909 he regularly took part in the Paris Salons, and also had solo exhibitions. During World War II he stayed in southern France, and it was then that his long-standing friendship with S. Beckett began. He painted landscapes, portraits and still lifes, initially showing connections with the paintings of Slevinsky, and later (1912-21) with the work of Cezanne and Cubism. After 1922, he created realistic portraits and landscapes; towards the end of his life, he returned to Cubist experience.