Title: L'Origine du Monde
Medium/Date: Watercolor and ink on paper, 1955
Size: 19.25 x 25.5 inches 48.9 x 64.77 cm
Signed: Signed and dated on the recto
Provenance: ANDRE MASSON. 1896-1987
Frame: Julius Lowy frame
ANDRE MASSON 1896-1987
André Masson is one of the key figures of the Surrealist movement. His paintings, prints, drawings, and stage designs were crucial early statements about the nature of Surrealism.

Not every painting has a story. Not every story with a painting is an interesting story. Andre Masson’s L’Origine du monde has a very interesting and very amusing story. Jacques Lacan, stepbrother to Andre Masson, acquired Courbet’s notorious L’ origin du Monde in 1955 and installed it in his country house outside of Paris where he entertained many top European artists and a host of ‘important’ visitors. Jacques Lacan was the leading psychoanalyst of his day. Followers of his psychoanalytical writings included Salvador Dali and Andre Bresson. Jacques Lacan was Picasso’s personal physician. In that era, 1955, the Courbet painting proved too provocative, too explicit, for his company and a solution had to be found for Lacan to enjoy the work of art and at the same time be able to conceal it from the ‘public’. Lacan asked Andre Masson, his stepbrother, to build a double bottom frame with a sliding panel to sit in front of the painting and draw another picture thereon. Andre Masson painted a surrealist image, an allusive version of Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde 1866. The water color offered, of the same name, was his study for that painting.

Bibliography: General works: Dawn Ades, Masson (NY: Rizzoli, 1994); Michel Leiris, Andre Masson. Massacres et autres dessins (Paris: Hermmann, 1971); Michel Leiris, Andre Masson and His Universe with Michel Leiris, and Georges Limbour, Andre Masson and His Universe. English texts translated by Douglas Cooper. Geneva: Editions des Trois Collines / London: Horizon, 1947); Georges Limbour, Masson Dessins (Paris: Braun & Cie, 1951); André Masson, Eulogy of Paul Klee (New York: Curt Valentin, 1950); André Masson, Nocturnal Notebook (New York: Curt Valentin, 1944); René Passeron, André Masson et les puissances du signe (Paris: Denoël, 1975); Roger Passeron, André Masson: General catalogue of the sculptures (New York / Torino: Marisa del Re Gallery/ Il Quadrante Edizioni, 1988); William Rubin and Carolyn Lanchner, André Masson (NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1976). Andre Masson’s works are in - Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz, Austria. - Musée d'art moderne de Céret, Céret, France. - Musée d'art moderne Lille métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. - Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany. - Ludwig Museum im Deutschherrenhaus, Koblenz, Germany. - Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany. - Irish Museum of Modern Art - IMMA, Dublin, Ireland. - Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel. - Trevi Flash Art Museum Of Contemporary Art, Trevi, Italy. - Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy. - Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Lichtenstein. - Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, Skopje, Macedonia. - Gemeentemuseum Helmond - Boscotondohal, Helmond, Holland. - Muzeum Sztuki w £odz, Lodz, Poland. - Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain. - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía MNCARS, Madrid, Spain. - Kunstmuseum Bern, Berna, Switzerland. - Tate Britain, London, England. - The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, USA. - MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.

Vered Gallery offers paintings, sculptures, works on paper and photographs by Ansel Adams, Milton Avery, Richard Avedon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Fernando Botero, Cartier-Bresson, Marc Chagall, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Wolf Kahn, Jeff Koons, Fernand Leger, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Henry Matisse, Thomas Moran, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Charles Sheeler, Alfred Stieglitz, Andy Warhol and Carleton Watkins.

Watercolor in very fine condition. Both line and color areas are rich and well defined