Exhibited: Kunstforeningen, Gl. Strand, Copenhagen, 1962. Exhibited: “Fremmed Kunst i Dansk Eje”, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, 29 February - 12 April 1964, cat. no. 144. Provenance: Art dealer Tom Birch, Copenhagen. Provenance: Private collection, Denmark.

“Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright”. The snow falls silently against the black night sky, while the fir trees stand tall under a flaming red star. This is how Christmas is depicted in Auguste Herbin’s interpretation from 1949, and the painting is in many ways an enduring image of the spirit of the season. However, Christmas has come early this year, and we are both excited and delighted to be able to present this beautiful work at our December auction.

The French painter and theorist Auguste Herbin is one of the absolute greats of 20th century modernism. As a young artist, he is initially influenced by impressionism, but through his friendship with Picasso, Braque and Juan Gris, he moves towards a more cubist, non-figurative style.

His technique and use of colour evolves over time, and from the 1940s, he creates his own compositional system called “alphabet plastique”, a geometric vocabulary consisting of coloured shapes corresponding to the 26 letters of the French alphabet. Herbin’s starting point is Goethe’s colour theory and Rudolph Steiner’s anthroposophical writings, as well as his conviction that there are synesthetic connections or parallels between tones, sounds, letters, colours and shapes. According to the alphabet, the letter C, for example, is dark red and has the shape of a circle or square, corresponding to “do” or “so” on the musical scale.