Lot 45 Micheal Farrell

Micheal Farrell 1940-2000 JOYCE AND PICASSO AT CAFE FLORE, PARIS Oil on canvas, 49'' x 45'' (124.5 x 114cm), signed and dated 91 & 92 verso. Provenance Galerie Origrafica, Malmo, Sweden Michael Farrell held a particularly close affection for James Joyce. Not only was he a great admirer of his work but he felt a close affinity with him and their shared status as exiled Irishmen. In 1982 Farrell produced La Fete, a large canvas depicting an alleged gathering in Paris of Picasso, Stravinsky, Nijinsky, Joyce and others in May 1922. He was subsequently told that Joyce and Picasso had met regularly at the Café de Flore in Paris. 'They never spoke. Picasso made pieces of sculpture and objects from cardboard matchsticks, then passed them to Joyce. These strange meetings intrigued Michael and, in the early 1990's, formed the basis of a series, Le Rencontre, which spanned several years.' David Farrell, Michael Farrell, The Life and Work of an Irish Artist, The Liffey Press, Dublin, 2006. In many instance's in this series the focus is on the interplay between the usually seated Picasso and Joyce, with the latter sometimes standing, sometimes crouching and at other times sitting at an adjoining table observing Picasso creating his matchstick sculptures. In our painting Farrell brings Picasso's creations to the fore and studies the erotic charge Picasso has invested in them under the studious, detached gaze of a truncated Joyce.