Alfred RETH (1884-1966). Composition, 1934. Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left (small hole and craquelure). Height 32.5 cm - Width 42 cm Note: a naturalized French Hungarian painter, he is considered one of the great figures of the Avant-Garde and the Ecole de Paris. He familiarized himself with Cubism with Jacques-Emile Blanche and Maurice Esmein in Montmartre. Later, while visiting the Musée Guimet, he developed an interest in Hindu and Khmer art. The influence of Cézanne, whom he studied from 1907 onwards, was felt. He joined Cubism in 1911 and exhibited several paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, alongside Matisse and Rouault, and later Braque, Léger, Lhote, Metzinger and de Segonzac, who became his friends. After the First World War, he joined the Abstraction - création : Art non figuratif movement alongside Arp, Georges Valmier, Herbin and Kupka, and steered his artistic production towards abstract forms and non-figurative art, without totally abandoning the figurative and collage art he loved so much. His work can be seen at the Centre Pompidou. Appraisal by Chanoit, experts in modern drawings and paintings.