Sonia Lewitska (Polish/French, 1874-1937)
Route sur un pont
signed in Latin (lower right)
oil on canvas
54 x 65cm (21 1/4 x 25 9/16in).
Footnotes:
Provenance
MF Robert & F Baille, Paris, Tableaux & Dessins, Objets d'Art, Mobilier, 1 December 2008, lot 27
Private collection, UK (acquired from the above sale)

One of the earliest and most active participants of the School of Paris, Sonia Lewitska was born in Poland into a Ukrainian family. Her father, inspector public schools Philipp Lewitski and mother, Modesta Byshovska, a descendant of the Polish aristocratic family of Leszczyńskis, were actively engaged in social and cultural work while sharing time between the family's residences in Vilkhivtsi and Kiev. Young Lewitska began her artistic training in Zhitomir and continued it in the studio of Sergii Svitoslavski in Kiev. In 1905, she moved to Paris and entered the School of Fine Arts.

Around that time, Lewitska met the Cubist Jean Marchand (1883 – 1940) whom she eventually married. The couple's home in Montmartre quickly became the meeting centre for Paris bohemia, including close friends Raoul Dufy, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, André Lhote, ad Henriette Tirman. In the 1910s, Lewitska became acquainted with Alexandr Archipenko and in 1912, exhibited with the Cubist group Section d'Or. A regular participant of the Paris salons, such as Salon d'Automne (1910–1913, 1919–1925, 1927–1934) and Salon des Artistes Indépendants (1910–1914, 1920–1922), Lewitska was among the first Ukrainian artists in Paris to receive praise from Guillaume Apollinaire. Her work was frequently exhibited in the galleries of Berthe Weil, Léon Marseille, as well as the Salon des Tuileries (1929, 1932, 1933), and many international exhibitions.

Developed under the influence of cubism, fauvism and post-impressionism and drawn on the Slavic folklore tradition, Levitska's intriguing paintings and graphic works became a manifestation of her poetic vision, individuality, and inherent freedom of expression. After her death in 1937, Tirman together with Marchand, Dufy, de Segonzac and Emil Bernarde founded the Society of Friends Sonia Lewitska, which organized two consecutive retrospective exhibitions of her work.

The canvas has not been lined. Surface dirt, frame abrasion. There is a micro flake loss in the upper right sky area, two dots of dirt in the upper right and bush area i the middle, 3 vertical lines on the sky.
There are no signs of restoration. Otherwise in a good and stable condition.