Provenance:
German Private Collection
Christie’s, New York, March 21, 2012, no. 755
Although shackled to the tree, the elephant appears very excited, with his front left leg raised and his red-rimmed eye keenly staring ahead. His mahout sits behind his neck, commanding the pachyderm with his long goad. The artist has adopted a minimal approach, as seen in the simple linear modeling and restrained coloring, yet his mastery is revealed by the spontaneous and confident strokes with which he has animated his subject.
