Valentine Willaert-Fontan (France/Belgium, 1882–1939) (Attri - Lot 220

Through the Eyes of an Iconophile - Part II

EXHIBITION

Lots will be available for viewing by appointment from Monday, September 28, through Thursday, October 15, and until the end of the auction. Please contact us by email (info@zouave.be) or phone (+32 2 410 46 04) to schedule an appointment.

PICKUP OF LOTS

Friday, October 16, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment.

FEES

32% including tax.

COLLECTOR’S FOREWORD

"There comes a time—that moment has arrived—when we no longer have a choice.

Time is running out, age is catching up, health issues arise, deadlines resurface...

And all of this leads you to sell part of your collection at the doorstep of an art gallery,

in northern Burgundy: Galerie LEL’OEIL. 

Inspired from the very beginning by a poem by Blaise Cendrars, it remains the Eye of an Iconophile,

who is writing these few lines to you. Through them, I look back on more than 40 years of visits

to studios, auction houses, encounters with artists from every continent, and art hunts.

When you come to choose a work that catches your eye in this catalog—or even let a work choose you

by a work—just as a house chooses its owner (I believe in this)—you’ll discover the fruits 

of my encounters. May this sale also serve as a passing on (for a price, I admit)

of works spanning the period from 1945 to the present. Without distinguishing between abstraction and figuration,

I have always regarded Expressionism as the guiding principle in my selections.

Furthermore, I have often been moved by those moments when an artist returns to work after a period of doubt,

exhaustion, or even depression. I have also been drawn to artists with a wide range of expression: Serge Vandercam, photographer, 

sculptor and painter of the Tollund Man (in which I include the woman), once portrayed by my friend, the choreographer Michèle Noiret,

daughter of Joseph Noiret (one of the founders of the CoBrA movement). Or the drawings of the sculptor Eugène Dodeigne and the friendship that

bound him to René-Edgar Gillet. Raoul Ubac and his shadows, as his name suggested.

What some call a collection is, in my eyes, rather a gathering of friends and supporters who have given me so much 

happiness, a breath of fresh air, the slow pace of contemplation, and, ultimately, a sense of sharing."

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