© Michel Kikoine estate

Kikoine’s ‘Israeli Girl’ employs a luminous palette and fluid use of watercolour to create an informal and intimate portrait, in contrast to the artist’s oils, typically executed in a deeper, earthier range of colours. A resident of France for most of his life and a close associate of artists Pinchus Kremegne and Chaim Soutine, Kikoine visited Israel three times: in 1950–51, 1953–54 and in 1965, with the smiling ‘Israeli girl’ most probably executed during one of his visits to the country.