“Les Deux Amis” — Lacquered Panel, Signed Gobing, 1986

A lacquered rectangular panel bearing a figurative composition in the post-Cubist tradition, depicting two young men sharing a common interior space. The pair are rendered in profile and three-quarter view, their forms dissolved into interlocking planes of ochre, brown, dark green and pale flesh — a palette at once warm and sombre, characteristic of the Cubist inheritance that continued to animate French painting well into the latter decades of the twentieth century.

The Cubist vocabulary is deployed with practiced fluency throughout: the background fractures into a diamond-checked pattern of geometric facets, while the figures' bodies and faces retain enough naturalistic contour to remain immediately legible. The composition thus negotiates, as Cubism always has, between representation and abstraction — maintaining a recognisable human presence at its centre while subjecting it to the formal rigour of the geometric grid.

The choice of lacquered panel as support lends the work an unusual material presence and a distinctive luminosity. Unlike canvas, the lacquer surface imparts a particular brilliance and depth to the brushwork, contributing to the tonal richness that distinguishes the piece from a conventional painting of the same subject. The work is signed “Gobing” and dated 1986, placing it within the tradition of post-war French figurative painting at a moment when the legacies of Braque and Léger were still actively informing independent painters of the period.

In excellent condition, retaining the full brilliance of its lacquered surface. Overall dimensions: 90 cm wide by 65 cm tall (panel thickness 1.5 cm). An engaging work for the collector drawn to the Cubist tradition, combining genuine decorative appeal with real pictorial quality.