JEAN SOUVERBIE (1891-1981) THE JUDGMENT OF PÂRIS, 1953 Oil on canvas Signed lower left Oil on canvas; signed lower left 53.5 X 72 CM - 21 X 28 3/8 IN. Mr. Frédéric Souverbie has confirmed the authenticity of this work. PROVENANCE Sale, Chochon Barré Allardi, Paris, November 15, 2006, lot 153, reproduced in catalog p. 35. BIBLIOGRAPHY Philippe Lejeune, Souverbie, Lyon, Éditions Galerie Malaval, 1983, reproduced n.p. Frédéric Souverbie, Jean Souverbie (1891-1981), éditions Gourcuff Gradenigo, Montreuil, 2021, reproduced under no. 323, p. 168. A golden apple. Three goddesses. A mortal's choice of the most beautiful among them. Through the intensity of its forms and volumes, Jean Souverbie's Judgment of Paris anchors this traditional subject in a new modernity. After studying the classicism of Nicolas Poussin and meeting Maurice Denis at the age of seventeen, Souverbie studied at the Académie Julian and then at the Académie Ranson. A painter of modernity, he naturally tried his hand at the Cubist revolution of the 1910s. The year 1925 marked a decisive turning point in his career with an exhibition with the Section d'Or at the Vavin-Raspail gallery. It was there that Souverbie met Picasso, then at the height of his classical period. His discovery of the Spanish master's imposing, sculptural nudes strongly influenced his anatomical study of his forms and subjects. It is these influences that Souverbie questions, contrasts and assembles in this canvas. The curves of the bodies are simplified and monumentalized, evoking his great compositions of the 1930s, such as the decor for the Palais de Chaillot. The Cubist-accented background, which denies the viewer any clues, introduces a dreamy, timeless aura beyond the simple mythological subject.