Franck BURTY-HAVILAND (1886 – 1971)

Still Life, the Pedestal Table, 1915

Oil on cardboard, 105 x 41 cm.

From a private collection and previously unrecorded on the art market.

Exhibition: Musée de Céret, 2010, Franck Burty-Haviland retrospective.

Bibliography:
Homage Franck Burty Haviland 1886-1971, Catalogue of the Musée d’art moderne de Céret, 2010, p. 110, 157.

This little-known artist is significant in the history of art in several respects.
First, he was a pioneer among collectors of African art, which he began acquiring as soon as he arrived in Paris in 1908, from the renowned dealer Josef Brummer.
He maintained friendly relations with Picasso from that time, and on several occasions between 1911 and 1913 welcomed him, along with Braque, to Céret, a small town in the Eastern Pyrenees near the Spanish border. (see photo of Frank Burty in Picasso’s studio, 1910)
An important stage of Cubism was reached there, in which Frank Burty took an active part; he is the only artist who can claim to have painted with these two inventors of Cubism, at a time when it was still taking shape. He would in fact remain friends with Picasso throughout his life; Picasso made donations to the Musée d’art moderne de Céret, of which Burty was curator from 1957 to 1967.
Although he was not a leading figure, his brief Cubist period from 1907 to 1915 nevertheless includes several masterpieces, including this painting.
This work bears witness to the influence of his two mentors: the lettering of the newspaper placed on the pedestal table; a faux-wood palette fixed to the wall by a raised nail; and, in the background, the synthesized architecture of the Capuchin convent in Céret, which he acquired in 1913.