NO. 42 OF 61
Le Couple
Robert Saint-Brice (1893 or 1898–1973)
$4,000
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 16 × 24 in
- Year
- 1959
- Price
- $4,000
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About the work
Nose to nose, two faces meet above a dark bottle held by both figures. Robert Saint-Brice drew inspiration from spirits in dreams. Here, the shared object gives their closeness a centre. The two presences stay distinct but belong together in the arrangement, creating an encounter whose warmth rests in their nearness and the connection between them.
Yellow and white dots trace the profiles, with green shapes around each head. Thick ochre, green, blue and black paint works across the panel. The vessel is tall and dark violet.
About the artist
Robert Saint-Brice was born in Pétion-Ville, Haiti, in the 1890s; sources give 1893 or 1898. He was brought up by a prominent Episcopalian but later became a Vodou priest. He did not begin to paint until he was over fifty, and he joined the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince in 1949. His paintings drew on the Vodou spirits, whose inspiration he said came to him in dreams. The Centre d'Art showed his work in 1960 and presented his recent works in 1968. The Centre d'Art holds twenty-seven of his paintings. He died in Port-au-Prince in 1973.