Jules-Alexandre Grün, Portrait in a Sailor Collar, Signed Oil on Canvas, Early 20th Century, from the Studio Sale

The white collar is the only clean shape in the picture. Everything else is scrubbed, dragged and left unfinished, and the face itself is barely more resolved than the wall behind it.

Oil on canvas, unlined, 19 x 16 inches (48 x 41 cm), 23 x 20 inches (58 x 51 cm) framed. Signed Grün lower left. French, early twentieth century, in a modern gilt frame with a brass nameplate.

A young sitter half length against a brown ground, in a dark coat over a wide white sailor collar, a dark bow at the throat. The hair is a single mass of brown laid over pale green, and that same green surrounds the head like a halo where the brush has scrubbed the ground back. The features are drawn in with a fine dark line over the flesh, the eyes set wide and level, and a stroke of orange at the right shoulder is the only warm note in the canvas.

The paint layer is stable with light surface wear and a fine drying craquelure in the thick dark passages, inherent to the paint. The canvas is unlined on its original keyed stretcher, and the studio sale stamp remains legible on the back.