Sam Francis’ legendary belief in the healing power of art stems from his stay at a hospital following a plane crash in World War II. Though it would be years before we would see Francis embark upon the enormous-scaled Blue Balls series of the early 1960s (and his mystical devotion to painting), he created myriad canvases in the interim year, exploring color with compelling intensity and texture. In addition, Francis was a pioneer of light in visual art, granting chromatic brightness rarely seen to his various coloring. One of the key inspirations for Francis’ work in this period was his environment: in the serenity of California he found his home and muse.

The present lot, Saraband, 1948-49 comes only a few short years after Francis began his painting career. The title comes from a courtly dance of the late renaissance, giving us clues as how to read Francis’ wondrous patterns of darkness and bright coloring. Francis’ great silver bands seem to form the background of the piece, providing a surface on which both darker and lighter hues perform a rapturous dance. In the upper regions of the picture, we observe flashes of ochre yellow and deep crimson, emerging from the shadows of Francis’ darker, deeper colors of framing. In all, Saraband manages to achieve a visual complexity that lends it a third dimension, its many layers spinning on top of one another in perfect synchrony. In a career that was to bring him to the mountains of Japan to seek inspiration for his work, here we observe Francis as vigorous and youthful, drawing brilliance from his own inner vision.