(Quiévy 1882–1960 Paris)

Femme au cerisier. 1924.

Oil on canvas.

Signed lower right: Herbin.

116 × 89 cm.

Provenance:
- Collection L'Effort Moderne, L. Rosenberg, Paris, no. 838 (with label on the reverse).
- Auction Sotheby's, London, 1973.
- Galerie Hasenclever, Munich.
- Private collection, Munich.
- Auction Koller, Zurich, 21 June 2013, lot 3227.
- acquired at the above auction.

Exhibition:
Amsterdam 1963, Herbin, Stedelijk Museum, 7 June–22 July 1963, no. 49.

Literature:
- Geneviève Claisse: Herbin-Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Paris 1993, p. 376, no. 552 (with b/w ill.).
- Bulletin de L'Effort Moderne, Paris 1926, no. 27.

August Herbin temporarily returned to figuration in the years 1922–25. In addition to landscapes and still lifes during that period, he also focused on the human figure, presenting it in sensitive portraits or engaged in everyday activities. The present work, "Femme au cerisier“, produced in 1924, is also classified in that creative phase.

In "Femme au cerisier“ Herbin only suggests the individual components of the picture – the tree, the ladder, the field and the hills visible on the horizon – with a few filler lines and shadow formations, thus reducing them to their basic forms that spread like a pattern before the eyes of the viewer. The silhouette-like, statuesque figure of the cherry picker is reminiscent of Pablo Picasso's classical female figures of the 1920s, in which he outlined his figures in large contours and created a voluminous sense of form.