79. 79AR Yiannis Tsarouchis (Greek, 1910-1989) Jeune homme couché technique mixte sur papier 47 x 98cm (18 1/2 x 38 9/16in). Peint vers 1937. mixed media on paper Provenance Acquired by the father of the present owner from Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex in 1964. Conveying monumentality, corporeal presence and sculpturesque clarity, this striking nude captures the vitality and pulse of life. "In no other painter's work, the human body is presented with such integrity, purity and open-mindedness than in the work of Tsarouchis. As a result, his pictures are transformed into a truthful language of a never-ending spiritual quest."1 Painted in 1937, the work showcases the artist's realist approach, as well as a tendency to elaborate on stylistic elements from Matisse. Its surface texture, broad, overlapping planes of colour, shallow compositional structure, silent inflexibility and sweeping brushstrokes, immediately capture the eye and recall the teachings of the French master (Compare Matisse's The dream, 1935, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Large reclining nude, also known as The pink nude, 1935, Baltimore Museum of Art). Moreover, the simplified contours, flat patterning, and search for balance between figure and field are characteristic of Matisse's art in the mid-1930s when he made many paintings and drawings of the nude. Radically abbreviated and daringly bold in style2, this picture of a male body—Tsarouchis's signature image—conveys a world of pure form where line, shape and colour have acquired a life of their own, pushing the figure to the boundaries of the canvas and by extension towards the limits of representation. 1 T. Niarchos, "A Natural Phaenomenon" [in Greek], in Yannis Tsarouchis, It's Good to Confess, Kastaniotis editions, Athens 1986, p. 293. 2 "I asked this model to sit for me at my studio to paint him in a way that differed from that of the Athens School of Fine Arts." Yannis Tsarouchis Painting, Comments [in Greek], Yannis Tsarouchis Foundation, Athens 1990, p. iv.