Oil on board, framed. Featuring an abstract landscape scene. Signed J. SIMA on the lower right corner. Attributed to Josef Sima (1891-1971, Czech). 20 x 23 cm (7.9 x 9.1 inches). Framed size: 23 x 27 cm (9.1 x 10.6 inches). PROVENANCE: Private Canadian collection

Josef Sima (1891-1971) was a renowned Czech painter, an important figure of modern European art. After graduating from Academy of Arts in Prague where he was the student of Jan Preisler he was involved in the Devetsil movement and in Umelecká beseda in Prague before travelling to Paris in 1921. He took French citizenship in 1926. He was artistic director for the journal Le Grand Jeu in 1929 and friend of French poets René Daumal, Roger Gilbert-Lecomte and Roger Vailland. His sources of inspiration spanned from sensual experience, through civil themes, geometric abstraction, imaginative seeking of archetypes of nature, things and human existence pictured as crystals, cosmic egg and female torsos to fascination by landscapes and mythology, until he finally united all these elements and made a synthesis of them in cosmic visions and symbols of human destiny.

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American, 19th century : This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).