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Signed and numbered 11/23
546 x 406 mm.; 21 1/2 x 16 inches
Provenance:
Collection of Jacqueline and Bernard Gheerbrant, founders of the Librairie La Hune at St. Germain-des-Près in Paris.
The model for this work was called Reine. At this time, Villon and Marcel Duchamp both depicted this model. She also appears in Duchamp’s painting of 1911: Jeune homme et jeune fille dans le printemps and she also is found in a Duchamp sketch of 1911. Since Duchamp’s painting in this case dates a year or more later, it also is possible that Duchamp used this Villon print as his “model” for his painting.
This work forms a notable pre-Section d’or (Golden Section) ensemble with Villon’s Nu couché (E. 246), Femme assise nue (E. 247) and Femme debout de dos (E. 248). From these four works, this one is the most spectacular, most daring and the one usually chosen to represent this essential period in the development of Villon’s graphic oeuvre and of twentieth century graphic art in general.
