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FIKRET MUALLA (turkish 1903-1967) STILL LIFE WITH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Signed and dated 'F. Moualla/52' bottom left, oil on canvas 15 x 18 1/4 in. (38.1 x 46.4cm) provenance: Étude Morel, Paris, sale of April 27, 1990, lot 122. Private Collection, Pennsylvania. note: Fikret Mualla was born in Istanbul, Turkey, but spent much of his life in Western Europe, studying first in Germany and Switzerland before moving to Paris to paint. Mualla lived in France for close to 30 years, capturing the daily life there, in cafés and the carousing nightlife in the country's capital in his bright, Fauvist paintings. More than two dozen of his paintings were included in the Turkish Pavilion of the International New York Fair in 1939. Though his work is generally cheerful and lively, inspired by the Bohemian circle to which he belonged, Mualla's life was punctuated by bouts of depression and alcoholism, and the artist spent several turns in mental institutions. His forceful swings in mood are evidenced in his passionately produced works, full of a lightness and vibrancy that belie the personal complications that haunted him throughout his life. After suffering a stroke and becoming paralyzed in 1962, Mualla lived under the care of one of his patrons at her home in Nice. He died there five years later, though the Turkish President had Mualla's remains moved to a cemetery in Üsküdar, Istanbul, in 1974, returning the artist to his native roots. We wish to thank Mr. Marc Ottavi and Mr. Kerem Topuz for confirming the authenticity of the present lot. The painting will be included in the forthcoming new edition of the Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work. A Certificate of Authenticity may be purchased directly from Mr. Ottavi by the successful bidder.