Nadia Bellingeri
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 40AR
Willi Rondas(Belgian, 1907-1975)The Birth of Aphrodite 53.8 x 64.7 cm. (21 2/8 x 25 1/2 in.)
Ending from 1 May 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, New Bond Street£500 - £700
Ask about this lot
Ingram Reid
Head Of Sale
Robert Jenkinson
Cataloguer
Willi Rondas (Belgian, 1907-1975)
The Birth of Aphrodite
signed and dated 'W.RONDAS.69' (lower right); further signed, inscribed and dated again 'WILLIE RONDAS/SKETCH FOR/BIRTH OF APHRODITE/9:X:69/La Naissance d'Aphrodite/(premier projet)' (verso)
oil on board
53.8 x 64.7 cm. (21 2/8 x 25 1/2 in.)
signed and dated 'W.RONDAS.69' (lower right); further signed, inscribed and dated again 'WILLIE RONDAS/SKETCH FOR/BIRTH OF APHRODITE/9:X:69/La Naissance d'Aphrodite/(premier projet)' (verso)
oil on board
53.8 x 64.7 cm. (21 2/8 x 25 1/2 in.)
Footnotes
Provenance
Private Collection, U.K.
Willi Rondas was born in Brussels, to a Belgian father and English mother, he initially studied Music and Architecture. He took up painting in 1931, enrolling at L'École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Upon graduating he worked as a restorer at the Louvre, later becoming an assistant to his friends Raoul Dufy and Christian Bérard on stage design projects. It was through them that he came into contact with the patron and collector Edward James who began buying Surrealist paintings by Rondas, a lifelong devotee of Paul Delvaux.
At the outbreak of WWII Rondas served in the Belgian Army. Evacuated at Dunkirk, he transferred to The British Army and spent the rest of his life in England. In addition to exhibiting in London and various teaching posts, he also designed textiles for Jacqmar.
Rondas exhibited extensively in Europe and America, his first exhibition at Galerie Le Centaure, Brussels in 1938. Subsequent retrospectives during his life included at Galerie d'Egmont, Brussels and Ben Uri, London, both in 1961. Another was mounted posthumously at Galerie Rutzmoser, München, 1987.