Simon Levy

Catalogue entry

Simon-Lévy 1886-1973

N05032 La Musicienne (The Musician) 1925

Inscribed 'Simon Levy' t.r., 'Simon-Levy' and 'Simon-Levy | Ne pas vernir | Not varnish' on back of canvas, 'Simon-Levy PARIS Ne pas vernir' on stretcher
Oil on canvas, 47 3/4 x 33 3/4 (121 x 86)
Presented by Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill 1939
Prov: Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill, London (purchased from the artist through the Independent Gallery 1926)
Exh: Salon des Tuileries, Paris, May-July 1925 (1364) as 'La Musicienne'; Peintures par Simon Lévy, Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris, November-December 1925 (no catalogue traced); Paintings by Simon-Levy, Independent Gallery, London, February 1926 (1) as 'The Musician'; The CAS: Second Loan Exhibition of Foreign Paintings, M. Knoedler, London, February 1928 (26); Fifty Years of Portraits, Leicester Galleries, London, May-June 1935 (125) as 'Portrait d' une violiniste'
Repr: L'Art Vivant, No.10, 15 May 1925, p.21; L'Amour de l'Art, VI, 1925, p.232

This picture has also been known as 'Portrait of a Violinist', but was first exhibited under the title used here. The artist said in March 1952 that the sitter was a professional model, who posed for him on many occasions.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.686-7, reproduced p.686

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