From a Private New York Collection

*After Fernand Léger (French, 1881-1955)
Blanc, c. 1960
hand knotted wool tapestry
Stitched “F. Leger” and “2/10” on the reverse
Edition 2 of 10
104 x 56 inches

$2,000 – 4,000

Produced by the Musee Fernand Leger after a 1927 cartoon by the artist. A copy of the letter describing the order placed by the Bollts for this carpet will accompany this lot.

Provenance:
Ordered by Robert and Andrea Bollt from the Musée Fernand Léger, Paris, 1960;
Property from the Estate of Andrea Bollt, Stair Auctioneers and Appraisers, 7 December 2013, lot 293:
Private New York Collection.

Literature:
S. Day, Art Deco and Modernist Carpets (San Francisco: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 2002) 133, no. 181, a nearly identical rug illustrated, from the apartment of Robert Mallet-Stevens.D. Paulvé, Marie Cuttoli, Myrbor et l’invention de la tapisserie modern (Paris: Norma, 2010), 44 for another rug of this design in the apartment of Paul du Bousquet decorated by Pierre Barbe, circa 1927.
Encyclopédie des métiers de l’art: Décoration Moderne, vol. I (Paris: Editions Albert Morancé, 1930), textile no. 10, pl. 97 preparatory gauche illustrated.

Andrea Bollt
February 19, 1933 – October 24, 2010

Andrea was ravishing and irrepressible. She was practical too, preferring walking to taking a taxi, and with her husband, Robert, would buy a work by Franz Kline or Philip Guston rather than an expensive dress. She and her husband cultivated friendships with contemporary artists in the 1950s and 60s in New York. With great foresight and a sense of adventure, the couple bought iconic works from Alexander Calder, Yves Klein, Franz Kline, Larry Rivers, Joan Miro, Philip Guston, Josef Albers and Jacques Lipchitz. Robert and Andrea became close friends with many of the artists. She owned over 10 works that Robert and she purchased from Franz Kline. They purchased the drawings Kline (lot 11) as Andrea recalled during my many visits, from the artist in the late 1950’s.

Andrea gave lively dinner parties at their chic apartment on the upper east side. I recall many evenings when we enjoyed Franz Kline’s favorite dish “Kline meatloaf.” She would enthrall guests with dramatic and intoxicating stories about the paintings, drawings and the major Calder mobiles which filled the apartment.

I recall several evenings when Andrea, with great flair, unrolled the three tapestries designed after Leger (lots 12-13) and Miró (Lot 14) from a cabinet filled with sculptures by Miró, standing mobiles by Calder and African art. She had purchased them in 1960 on an art-buying trip with Robert to Europe.

In 1961, she and Robert attended a party thrown by Yves Klein and watched him create one of the famous Ant paintings. She acquired the painting at that time. It sold at auction at Sotheby’s in November, 2012 for $4,338,500. She and Robert had an unerring eye for quality and could evaluate the importance of a work of art with great foresight.

Art was her passion, the daily currency of her life, her social milieu, and now, the legacy she leaves behind. In 2012 the Estate of Mrs. Andrea Bollt donated eight important works of modern art from her collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including paintings by Willem de Kooning, a seminal 1939 mobile, “Black Cloud” by Alexander Calder and also an 80 7/8 by 150 inch canvas painted in 1961. Robert and she acquired the painting, as Andrea recalled, one evening after an impromptu call from Kline to drop by for a drink at his place on the upper west side of Manhattan. The timing was such that Kline was looking to raise some cash. According to Andrea, they drove home with the painting strapped to the roof of their car. This monumental work is the undoubtedly one of the most important examples of abstract expressionism in the museum’s collection and perhaps in the artist’s oeuvre”

-Leigh Keno, November 2012

In overall good condition. Some yellow staining throughout, please see photos. No pulled threads.