Original photographic portrait of Nicolas de Staël in his atelier.
Paris n.d. (circa 1954), photo: 14,5x20,4cm ; leaf : 18,2x24cm.
Original silver print portrait of Nicolas de Staël by Denise Colomb.
The painter sits in his Parisian atelier in rue Gauget, one year before his death.
The photograph was taken by Denise Colomb, great portraitist of the 20th century, known for her portraits of Antonin Artaud, Giacometti, Picasso, Soulages and Miro in their studio.
“It is said that his workshop was the cave of a palaeontological potter. With sediment, layers of paleo... A crucible, a large material well, riddled with pigments, paintbrushes, pots of plastered trowels, buckets, rags. In a strong smell of turpentine. A workshop covered, soiled, stained with dirt, with masonry clay. Its wingspan, its strength, its topsail height springs into this crater of Vesuvius. Slightly disoriented, he leans, he pours. To paint, for him, is to be prey to vertigo, to unpredictable, accidental, chance junctions. (Patrick Grainville, Les Yeux de Milos).