Alberto SAVINIO (1891-1952) - Lot 70

Alberto SAVINIO (1891-1952) Untitled (portrait of a seated woman in a flowery dress), circa 1927 - 1928 Oil on canvas, signed lower right 60 x 81 cm. Provenance : - Private collection, Seine et Marne - By descent to the present owners A certificate of inclusion in the Alberto Savinio archives, dated February 20, 2026, will be given to the buyer. Born Andrea de Chirico in Athens in 1891, Alberto Savinio adopted his pseudonym during his early years in Paris. His work is not limited to painting: he writes, composes, works for the theater and approaches images with a freedom that is nourished by these different registers. Returning to Paris in 1926, he gave new prominence to painting, and held his first solo show the following year at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, with a presentation by Jean Cocteau. In this portrait, this freedom is reflected in the very construction of the scene. Savinio places a woman seated in the foreground, on an armchair that looks more like it belongs in an interior than on a terrace. This piece of furniture, with its rounded back and domestic allure, creates an initial discrepancy. It doesn't simply appear to be placed outside: it gives the figure an almost installed position, as if she were standing in front of a set. The background is treated in a very narrow range, dominated by grays, browns and light tones. Yet it is not secondary. The water, the relief and the heavy sky create a strange landscape, difficult to identify. Are we standing on a lake, in front of a painted set, on a theater stage? Color is concentrated in the foreground: the blue of the dress, the floral motifs that enliven it, the bracelets, and the deeper tones of the armchair. The model stands out in contrast to this almost monochrome landscape. But there's nothing perfectly tranquil about this presence. The face, turned towards the viewer, maintains a restrained expression; the gaze appears slightly worried, as if at odds with the seated pose and apparent calm of the scene. This discreet concern is matched by the strangeness of the setting. The dark sky does not transform the landscape into an open threat, but it does prevent the work from being read as a simple plein-air portrait. Everything seems at once poised and unstable: the woman, the indoor armchair, the terrace, the almost theatrical background. Savinio thus constructs an image that retains the form of a portrait, but shifts it to a more ambiguous situation, between real presence and staging.