156 / 244
99
Basil Ivan Rákóczi (1908-1979)
LE JEU DE LA LUNE, 1952
oil on canvas
signed lower right; titled, numbered [1750] and dated on reverse
22 x 15in. (55.88 x 38.10cm)
Provenance:
Family of the artist
With a second work on reverse.
This oil was painted by Basil Rákóczi in April 1952 in Menton, on one of his many stays on the south coast
of France in the late 1940s and into the 1950s. The title refers to the mythical creatures, part human and
part beast, cavorting or playing to the light of the moon. These creatures, with their trademark square
heads, were first referred to by the artist as ‘wooks’, or ‘wookies’. He later called them his lantern figures,
reflecting their other-worldly, or ghost-like, nature.
We are grateful to the artist’s family for their assistance in cataloguing this work.
€2500-€3500 (£2140-£2990 approx.)
Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 99