Déclaration

Watercolour on paper, signed lower right ‘FERNAND COUDERC’, 230 x 250 mm; artist’s caption in pencil to lower margin: ‘-Que faites-vous donc, ami? / – Je fais comme l’automne: je déshabille la belle nature!’ (‘What are young doing, my friend?’ ‘I’m doing what autumn does: I’m undressing beautiful nature!’); an editor’s annotation in pencil at upper margin states the illustration was intended for publication on the ’25 September or later’ (no year indicated).

A risque painting of a gentleman undressing a coquettish young woman.

French painter, illustrator and advertiser Fernand Couderc exhibited at the Salon des Humoristes in 1929, of which he was a member. He collaborated on many humorous and risqué newspapers including Pages Folles, Le Sourire, Paris-Plaisirs, Froufrou, Gens qui Rient, etc. (BENEZIT, Edouard-Joseph “Dictionnaire Biographique des Artistes Contemporains”)