Ker-Xavier ROUSSEL (1867 - 1944) Women in the countryside Black stone. Signed lower right. 15.5 x 23 cm Provenance: Christie's Christie's sale, Paris, January 30, 2008, n°124. Exhibition : Ker-Xavier Roussel Kunsthalle, Bremen, September 29 - November 21, 1965, n°69 (label on mount). "This drawing is a sketch for a large pastel dated around 1897. It belongs to a key period, that of the beginnings of his mythological orientation, when he left the esoteric subjects of the Nabis to work on sacred woods and the muses who busy themselves there (clear influence of Puvis de Chavannes). Roussel's Nabi works are rather rare, as most of them are reputed to have been destroyed (according to Ambroise Vollard's recollections). Mathias Chivot