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| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nov 14, 2013 | Heritage Auctions | Dallas | Western & California Art | 70031 | $****** - ****** | Siberian Girl (No. 14) |
paintings
31.8 x 39.4 cm (12.5 x 15.5 in)
oil on silk laid on board
Signed, inscribed, and dated l.l.: Leon Gaspard / Urga, 1922; Titled, inscribed, and dated verso: No. 14 Siberian Girl / painted in Urga 1922
Private collection, Chicago
Gifted to Mr. Roman Wronski, 1950s
Thence by descent to his wife Mae Wronski, 1997
Thence by descent to current owner, 2003.In the gloom of a downtown Chicago basement, Siberian Girl has resided in virtual obscurity for the latter half of the twentieth century. It might not seem that she has led a charmed life, but her survival is a testament to the promises made - and kept - to a dying woman. Painted in 1922 by one of the greatest portraitists of the modern era, Leon Gaspard has rendered the delicate likeness of a young peasant girl against the vibrant backdrop of her traditional Siberian dress. Gaspard's trademark compositional structure has placed the girl slightly off center within the viewer's plane, a row of abstracted villagers arcing away from her in the snowy distance. This masterwork - painted four years after Gaspard moved to Taos, New Mexico - has hung in isolation, been threatened with destruction, and now returns from exile to receive its long overdue celebration. During the fifties, Roman Wronski was the maintenance man for an affluent high rise apartment building in Chicago. While on a call to one of the building's units, he found himself face to face with Gaspard's Siberian Girl. Struck by the beauty of the painting, he happened to compliment the work to its owner. The owners took notice of his appreciation and, when they moved, gifted the painting to Roman in thanks. The painting, however, was met with little enthusiasm by his wife Mae. Despite her husband's insistence that the work was valuable, she refused to display it in her home. Thus it was relegated to hang in the building's basement, residing in obscurity for the next four decades. After Roman's death in 1997, the painting returned to the Wronski's apartment. Mae began asking her niece to help find the painting's true value, and her niece promised to do so despite doubts within the family of its worth. When Mae passed away in 2003, Siberian Girl was inherited by the Wronski's niece. The family pressed her to discard of the work once and for all, skeptical that the painting would be worth anything. Unfamiliar with Gaspard, even her son urged her to throw it away or simply toss it in the dumpster. Thankfully, she could never bring herself to destroy the painting nor break the promise she had made to her aunt. Through her diligence and devotion, Heritage Auctions is pleased to present this rediscovered masterwork of Leon Gaspard.
