Paintings from Marie Vassilieff’s cubist period rarely appear on the open market, and even rarer are works of the quality and importance of Femme à l’éventail noir. In the same family since it was acquired in the early 1970s, it was last exhibited at the exhibition of Vassilieff’s cubist work at Galerie Hupel in Paris in 1969. The reappearance of this painting is therefore a notable event for collects ors and art historians alike.

In his article in the catalogue of the 1969 exhibition, eminent art critic Waldemar George singles out Femme à l’éventail noir along with Clown from 1912 (fig.1), calling them the culmination of Vassilieff’s experimentation in Cubism. For him, these two paintings are not only among Vassilieff's very best; they are masterpieces of Parisian Cubism. He hence placed the artist on par with the founders of the movement.

A key figure of the early School of Paris, Vassilieff was also one of the first Russian artists to settle in the city. She had first visited the French capital in 1905, moving there permanently in 1907, aged just 23. She studied under Henri Matisse and took classes at the École des Beaux-Arts. Her studio in Montparnasse become known as Académie Vassilieff and was an important.mes eting place for members of the radical Parisian avant-garde, including Chagall, Soutine, Modigliani, Léger, Braque and Picasso.

Female nudes occupy an important place in Vassilieff’s early work. She painted several female nudes with fans, such as Woman with Fan from 1910, now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collects ion. The use of a fan gives these nudes a playfully erotic quality. Picasso used the same device, for example in his 1907 painting Woman with Fan. The latter was the first work by Picasso acquired by Sergei Shchukin and is now at the State Hermitage in St Petersburg.