View of the Thien-Thane Pagode, Mauritius
signed 'Chazal' (lower left)
gouache, unframed
78.5 x 58cm

Although his works effervesce with the fauvist zeal and naivety of Matisse, Derain and Van Gogh, the paintings of Malcolm de Chazal are unlike those of any other artist.

An alchemist of word and image, poet, writer and artist, Malcolm de Chazal was born to a long-established aristocratic land-owning French family in Mauritius in 1902. It was not until 1940, after several years working as an agronomist on sugar plantations and later for the Office of Telecommunications, that Chazal instigated his career as a writer and poet. Best known for his seminal works, Pensées and Sens-Plastique, Chazal’s written works gained widespread critical acclaim, prompting André Breton to hail Chazal as a surrealist and W.H. Auden to dub him ‘the most original and interesting French writer to emerge since the war.’

At the suggestion of Georges Braque, in 1950, Chazal began painting. Utilising bold, volumetric forms and a naive, joyous palette, the present lot is characteristic of Chazal’s larger body of work.

Condition Report

The item comes with a backboard, but is not glazed. The black passages of paint show a number of scattered white specks, and there yellow stripes at the top show some small, scattered brown accretions, there is some overall surface dirt commensurate with age, but is otherwise clean. There are some places in the yellow stripes and on the white steps to the pagode where some small networks of fine cracks have appeared in the paint layer and there are a few small areas of paint loss, for example at the top of the fifth stripe from the left hand side, on the petal of the yellow flower and on the left hand edge above the signature. Where there is no paint on the surface, the paper shows typical age toning and discolouration. Above the signature, there is a very small tear and some further small nibbles and knocks to the lower edge of the sheet. There is a rip and loss to the lower right hand corner, please see added images. Otherwise, a good image with strong colours.