MOISE KISLING (POLISH-FRENCH 1891-1953) Portrait de Madame Andre Salmon, 1919 oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm (36 1/4 x 28 3/4 in.) signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE Maitre Blache, Commissaire Priseur, Versailles, June 13, 1979 Christie`s, New York, May 3, 2006, lot 425 LITERATURE H. Troyat and J. Kisling, Kisling 1891-1953, vol. II, (Paris, 1982), p. 81 LOT NOTES Andre Salmon, the gifted poet, writer, and art critic, married Jeanne Blazy-Escarpette, depicted in this painting, in 1909. A fierce proponent of the arts, and defender of the Avant-Garde, Salmon lived with Blazy-Escarpette in the 7th arondissement of Paris on rue Rousselet. While employed and well known amongst artist circles, Salmon fell into financial difficulties by the 1930s, while his wife Jeanne unfortunately became an opium addict, passing away in 1949. This painting, however, painted in 1919, presents a young, vibrant, and feminine Mme Salmon, pensive but confident, her mood and features captured delicately by the master of female portraiture, Moise Kisling, in his own prime as an artist living in Montparnasse.