Signed lower left: Guy Pène Du Bois

Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida, "Edward Hopper and Guy Pène du Bois: Painting the Real," December 17, 2022-March 26, 2023.

The artist; Estate of the above; James Graham and Sons, New York; 511 Gallery, New York; Private collection, Arizona.

Guy Pène du Bois (American, 1884-1958) Girl in Yellow Evening Dress Oil on canvas 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm) Signed lower left: Guy Pène Du Bois PROVENANCE: The artist; Estate of the above; James Graham and Sons, New York; 511 Gallery, New York. EXHIBITED: Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida, "Edward Hopper and Guy Pène du Bois: Painting the Real," December 17, 2022-March 26, 2023. Guy Pène du Bois was American by birth, but of a French family that had settled in Louisiana in the early 1800s. He did not speak English until the age of eight, and though always a resident of New York and Connecticut, he spent years during his lifetime residing in France and, sporadically in New Orleans as well. It was perhaps this insider/outsider stance that made him a keen recorder of the social and cultural lives and manners of the upper classes, and, sometimes, a gently sarcastic critic of their realities. An early student of Robert Henri in the artist's own school, Pène du Bois became his colleague at the Art Students League in New York from 1920 to 1924, where his students numbered Alexander Calder, Isabel Bishop and Raphael Soyer, among others. After returning from his six-year residence in France, Pène du Bois continued to teach at the League from 1930 to 1936, while also teaching private classes in both his Greenwich Village studio and his farm in Stonington, Connecticut. It is in the later portraits of models, friends, and the family members of patrons, that one sees the artist breaking away from the typecasting and mannequin-like figures of his 1920's social satires to portraits of a more individuated and personalized approach. Girl in Yellow Evening Dress is an example. Without knowing whether she is a student, friend, or professional model, her designer evening dress, jewelry, make-up, and the sharpness of her features at first glance convey only superficial signs of the person. But a closer look reveals the wariness of the woman's expression and yet also the beginning of a small smile and a softness of gesture from one who at first seemed such a clear-cut "type". HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Unlined canvas. Small 1 inch patch along the lower edge, with accompanying inpaint. Scattered areas of craquelure. Minor frame abrasions along the extreme edges. Slightly yellowed varnish. Framed Dimensions 45 X 35 Inches