Sold for: $112,100

PROVENANCE
Galerie Jacques Dubourg, Paris
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Sold sale of Contemporary Art, Christie's, New York, February 23, 1990, lot 12
Private Collection
Sold sale of Post-War Art, Christie's, London, February 7, 2002, lot 526
Private Collection, Washington, DC

LITERATURE
Guy Cogeval and Stéphane Aquin, editors, Riopelle, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2006, essay by Stéphane Aquin, page 41
Yseult Riopelle, Jean Paul Riopelle Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 3, 1960 - 1965, 2009, reproduced page 220, catalogue #1964.035H.V1964

One of Canada’s truly international painters, Jean Paul Riopelle first exhibited in Paris in 1949 at Galerie Nina Dausset, with a catalogue preface written by André Breton. In 1956 Riopelle began to associate with the gallery included in the provenance of this work, Galerie Jacques Dubourg, a prominent contemporary gallery in Paris that also represented American artists Sam Francis and Joan Mitchell. Riopelle spent almost 40 years in Paris, achieving fame abroad, but he was also a significant influence on modernist Canadian painters. Stéphane Aquin wrote, “More than anyone else, Riopelle was a relay between currents in European thought and the various art trends of the time—surrealism, abstraction, and the great modern painterly tradition running from Courbet to Matisse by way of Monet and Cézanne. His influence on his colleagues was real and concrete.” Sans titre was painted circa 1964 when Riopelle was still in France but was renewing his ties to Canada—in 1963 the National Gallery of Canada held a retrospective exhibition of his work. Created during this vital period, Sans titre is an energetic canvas alive with texture and a brilliant palette of icy blue, crimson and lime green.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars