Provenance: Private collection, Rome
Sold by Casa d’Aste Capitolium Art, Brescia, Auction 418, Lot 17, 26 July 2023
Acquired from the above by the current owner
Private collection, Beirut

Painted in 1958, Étude pour une figure belongs to Louay Kayali’s formative Roman period, during which the artist was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and beginning to gain recognition through exhibitions and competitions. That same year, Kayali won first prize at the Sicilia Contest, organized by the Italian-Arab Relations Association in Rome.

This oil on board is a study and variation related to Kayali’s 1958 painting Waiting for hope, an oil on canvas measuring 60 × 90 cm, documented in the artist’s official archive:
https://louay-kayali.com/index.php?page=types&op=view_paint&lang=en&pnt_id=106

The work revisits the female figure from Waiting for hope through a closer, more intimate composition, focusing on the sitter’s quiet expression and introspective presence. Its restrained palette, soft modeling, and psychological stillness reflect Kayali’s early figurative language, before the more socially charged works that would define his later career.

The work previously appeared at auction as Lot 17 in Auction 418 | Modern & Contemporary Art, Casa d’Aste Capitolium Art, Brescia, Italy, held on 26 July 2023, under the title Studio per figura. It was listed as oil on panel, signed and dated lower left, with provenance from a private collection in Rome, before entering a private collection in Beirut.