GISBERT COMBAZ (BELGIAN 1869-1941)
Colocynth
signed with the monogram in black ink (lower left centre)
pen and black ink and watercolour on buff paper laid down on board
42.6 x 57.5 cm (16 3/4 x 22 5/8 in)

Provenance:

Louis and Berthe Wittamer-De Camps, Brussels (in the 1950s the Wittamer-De Camps moved into the Hôtel Solvay on the Avenue Louise in Brussels, designed by Victor Horta and built between 1895 and 1900. Berthe Wittamer was a pupil of Combaz, and a keen collector of his work. Exhibited: San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor (and travelling), La Belle Epoque: Masterworks by Combaz, Léo Jo and Livemont. A Loan Exhibition from the Collection of L. Wittamer-De Camps, 1980-1981, no. 39 (illustrated in the catalogue) Executed circa 1911-12, colocynth (citrillus colocynthis), also known as bitter apple, desert gourd or bitter cucumber, is a desert plant which grows in sandy, arid soil and bears small, hard fruits. Combaz was much influenced by the work of Les XX. He exhibited with La Libre Esthétique from 1897 onwards, and designed many of its exhibition posters. For over forty years he taught at the Ecole des Arts Industriels et Décoratifs in Ixelles, and later at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where René Magritte was one of his pupils. ,