ƒ MARGUERITE BURNAT-PROVINS (France, 1872-1952) VASTANDA, 1950 Pencil on paper Signed lower right Countersigned, dated, titled and located "Ma ville/ Vastanda/ Clos des pins St Jacques de Grasse/ 28 juin 1950" on the back Pencil on paper; signed lower right; signed again, dated, titled, located on the reverse 32,5 X 24,5 CM - 12 3/4 X 9 5/8 IN.PROVENANCE Collection of Mr and Mrs G., Switzerland "1914 is a key date in the pictorial work of Marguerite Burnat-Provins. At the precise moment of mobilisation, the artist, then aged forty-two, was suddenly subject to visions that led her to produce the long series of hallucinatory compositions entitled Ma Ville, comprising almost three thousand pieces. The figures and characters followed one another tirelessly; Marguerite Burnat-Provins drew and painted them in haste, frenzy and solitude, for forty years (...) The strange figures appeared in her mind and sometimes physically manifested themselves, she said, in the house. These visions are accompanied by information - name, description, psychological character - which is transmitted to her at the same time. (...) The eyes of the characters in Ma Ville are disturbing, often half-closed, sometimes closed or masked, a sign of a very intense inner and imaginary life. As Catherine Dubuis and Pascal Ruedin have pointed out, closed eyes, full of mystery, belong to the symbolist vocabulary, indicating 'beyond material reality, beyond the real image: the invisible and the unspeakable'." Lucienne Peiry, "Les peintures visionnaires de Marguerite Burnat-Provins", in. Marguerite Burnat-Provins, 1872-1952, de l'Art nouveau à l'art hallucinatoire, Somogy éd. d'art, Paris : 2003, p . 85.