FRANCISCO BORES LÓPEZ, (Madrid, 1898 - Paris, 1972)."Trois Hommes et une Femme à table. ("Three

FRANCISCO BORES LÓPEZ, (Madrid, 1898 - Paris, 1972).
"Trois Hommes et une Femme à table. ("Three Men and a Woman eating"), 1931.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner, 1931.
Titled, signed and dated on the back in pencil on the stretcher.
Size: 114 x 195 cm; 137 x 212 cm (frame).
Provenance: Galerie Vavin-Raspail, Paris. Private collection, Hotel Drout et Poyet, Paris. Versailles M. Perrin, Royère, Lajeunesse, 1898. Benlliure Art Gallery, Valencia.
Exhibitions: Galerie Georges Bernheim & Cie, 1931; Centro de Exposiciones y Congresos de Zaragoza; Galería de Arte Hélène Rooryck in Pamplona (1994), Cat. no. 3 repr: col.p.39.
Bibliography: Téraide, E., "Vom Stilleben zur lebendigen Natur", Das Kunstblatt, Berlin, August 1931, repr: b/w p.229 (with the title "Früstück" - "Breakfast" - "Petit déjeuner").
In the catalogue raisonné of VV.AA., "Francisco Bores, catálogo razonado pintura 1917-1944". Edition: Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía/ Telefónica, Madrid, 2003, p. 172.
The present work is part of one of the most important periods of the Madrid-born artist's career, as his works came to be considered the starting point for a major renewal within the international art scene. It is a period in which he continued to exhibit at the Salon des Superindependants until 1938, after which he exhibited sporadically.
"Three Men and a Woman Eating" is an example of the new language that Bores put into practice, in which he used experimental rather than temperamental painting, resulting in compositions close to figuration, with a more defined character and greater chromatic intensity.
It was during this period that he met the sculptors Henri Laurens (1885-1954) and Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). He also became great friends with the diplomat Paul Petit (1914-1981), Ambassador of Denmark and disseminator of Bores' work in Denmark and Sweden, as well as being introduced into various private collections and group exhibitions.
Francisco Bores trained at the painting academy of Cecilio Pla and the Academia Libre of Julio Moisés, and began his career by producing engravings for magazines such as "Horizonte" and "Revista de Occidente". In 1922 he took part for the first time in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, and three years later he showed his work at the first Exhibition of the Society of Iberian Artists, but the lack of interest of the Madrid public in young art prompted him to leave for Paris. In the French capital he came into contact with Picasso and Juan Gris, and made his individual debut in 1927. The following year he held his first one-man show in the United States, and in 1930 he exhibited again, this time as part of a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After the Second World War he resumed his exhibition activity, and in 1947 the French state acquired a work by Bores for the first time. In 1949 the Museum of Modern Art in New York bought his paintings. Francisco Bores is represented in the most important museums all over the world, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Fine Arts Museums of Bilbao, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Gothenburg and Baltimore, the MOMA in New York, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the National Galleries of Athens, Brno and Edinburgh, the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, and the Modern Art Museums of Stockholm, Turin and Madrid.