Dolls. The marquis and the shepherdess.

Black ink, watercolour, 44,1 x 27,0 cm, laid paper with watermark (Chiffon), signed, dated (sl. browned, sm. tear on edge, marg. hole, prickholes in corners, traces of former mount on edges).

Previously unrecorded drawing by Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946), kept in the same Belgian private collection for several generations. Spilliaert drew this subject multiple times in this period, of which several examples are at Mu.ZEE in Ostend. This work will be included in the catalogue raisonné of Léon Spilliaert in preparation by Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier.
Prov. Anna Roose (died 18.09.1980), Ostend. According to oral tradition in the family, she worked in a shop with painter's supplies in Ostend. - Bequeathed together with works by James Ensor to her cousin, Kortrijk. - By descent to the current private collection, Belgium.