Brustbild einer Dame (Irene). 1925.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower left. Monogram and date in center of right margin. 45,5 x 38 cm (17,9 x 14,9 in).
One of the artist's lucent female portraits, rare on the international auction market (source:www.artnet.de).

With an archive report issued by the 'Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (SIK-ISEA), Zurich, dated 21 March, 2012. The Swiss institute registers this work as a work by the artist's hand under the archive number 120314 0002. The work will be included into the forthcoming catalog raisonné of paintings by Cuno Amiet.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Switzerland (received from depicted person).

Cuno Amiet took first lessons in art with the Swiss painter Frank Buchser while he still went to school. From 1886 to 1888 he studied at the academy in Munich under, among others, Karl Raupp. This was also where he met Giovanni Giacometti in 1887, an encounter that led to a life-long friendship. Together they attended the Académie Julian in Paris from 1888 to 1891. As early as in 1889 Amiet received first public attention with a portrait of Giacometti he showed at the Paris Salon. Before he returned to Switzerland in 1893, he spent a year in the artist village Pont-Aven in Brittany where he saw works by Gaugin and Van Gogh. In Stampa, Giacometti’s place of birth, Amiet met Giovanni Segantini in 1895, who inspired him to experiment with new colors. A year later he became acquainted with the art theorist and paper producer Oscar Miller, who would be Amiet’s patron henceforward. The first commissioned work was a portrait of Hodler, whom Amiet met in 1897. Meanwhile he had married Anna Luder, and he finally settled in Oschwand in 1898. After the turn of the century Amiet showed works in the Vienna Secession, in Zurich and in Dresden. There his exhibition had lasting impact on Kirchner and Heckel, who founded the "Brücke" a little later. Amiet became active member until the group broke up in 1913. In 1907 he organized a Brücke exhibition in Solothurn. Over the following years he traveled a lot, for instance to Paris, Florence and Rome. In 1911 he showed works in the Galerie Thannhauser in Munich and met Macke, Klee and Kandinsky there. Their ideas strongly impressed him. In 1912 Cuno Amiet represented Switzerland on the ‘Sonderbund‘ exhibition in Cologne and met the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.

Cuno Amiet, who is renowned in Germany for his membership in the artist group "Brücke", is regarded, along with Ferdinand Hodler, the most important pioneer of Modernism in Switzerland. His rich oeuvre introduced the ideas and accomplishments of French Late Impressionism into the Swiss art scene. On our painting Cuno Amiet shows a befriended dancer who performed together with her partner "Emil" under the stage name "Irene". Cuno Amiet very much esteemed Irene as an attractive model, she lived from 1900 to 1999. After her death her last will stipulated a self portrait of the artist to go to the art museum Solothurn. Amiet presents Irene in proud upright posture. Her head up, she looks the observer straight in the eye. Her noble light flesh tint is bordered and makes for a nice contrast with the background’s light shade of blue. Line management and coloring hint at the influence of Ferdinand Hodler, however, in terms of power of expression and the poignancy that fills the portrait, he grew beyond his acknowledged idol. Sincerity and elegance that Irene emanates are in a fascinating contrast with her girlish softness and physical appearance. With great poise the artist captured her temperament and the qualities that make his attractive model a gifted dancer.

In 1931 more than 50 works were destroyed in a fire in the Munich Glaspalast, among them many from his early period. Over the years numerous exhibitions in Switzerland and Paris consolidated his fame. In 1954 Amiet showed works on the Biennale in Venice. He was active up until his death in 1961. [KH].