Jean Metzinger

Galerie L'Effort Moderne, Paris
E. & A. Silberman Galleries, New York
Private Collection (acquired circa 1940s)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Very good condition. Original canvas. Some minor craquelure in the purple pigment right of center and light blue pigment on either side of center. Pinhead size spot of loss at center of bottom right quadrant. Some minor rubbing along bottom edge due to frame abrasion. Under UV light: a few strokes of inpainting in the top of the chimney. Otherwise fine.
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Metzinger is often credited with being the first to recognize stylistic similarities in the work of Picasso, Braque, Delaunay and Le Fauconnier, playing a crucial role in the establishment of a distinct Cubist movement. John Golding writes, "...Metzinger has learned from Picasso how to reconcile three-dimensional form with the picture plane, by placing the subject in shallow depth and fusing it with its surroundings, but there is no real interest in analyzing solid forms. In his early analytical Cubism Picasso distended and distorted form, seeking to convey a sense of solidity and to synthesize as much information as possible into a single image. Metzinger, on the other hand, elongates his figures in a mannerist fashion, denying their sculptural solidity. His vision is still fundamentally naturalistic, and he views his subject from the single, static point of a traditional painting" (John Golding, Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 1907-1914, London, 1959, p. 147).

Painted in 1916, Maison cubiste dans un paysage géométrique exemplifies the strict constructivist ordering and positioning of form and color that had become so pronounced in Metzinger's pre-1920 Cubist works. The busy planar structure of the houses climbs into the green, geometric hills and leads the viewer into the upper right space of the canvas. Similar to Picasso's Reservoir at Horta (see fig. 1), the present work uses a fragmented landscape to create perspective through a unity of objects. Douglas Cooper states, "Metzinger's vision was basically naturalistic, yet he imposed over it a system of proportions, planes and angles, which were mathematically calculated; he did not want to recreate reality in its totality using pure pictorial means (Douglas Cooper, The Cubist Epoch, London, 1970, p. 77). In Du Cubisme, published by Metzinger and Gleizes in 1912, Metzinger writes, "Today painting in oils allows us to express notions of depth, density and duration supposed to be inexpressible, and incites us to represent, in terms of a complex rhythm, a veritable fusion of objects, within a limited space" (quoted in ibid., p. 72).

Fig. 1   Pablo Picasso, Reservoir à Horta, 1909, oil on canvas, Private Collection