Louis Marcoussis

Sale: Sotheby's, London, December 1, 1993, lot 187
Gallery Asada, Nagoya (acquired at the above sale)
Private Collection, Belgium (acquired from the above)

This canvas is unlined and the paint layer seems to be more or less clean. The edges are beginning to become unstable and there are visible breaks to the extreme top right edge. The paint layer is stable and it does not seem necessary to line the canvas. The stretcher on which the canvas was originally stretched has a dent in the center of the lower edge which has been echoed in the painting itself, but this seems to be original. There are no retouches to the paint layer. There is an area in the upper center approximately two and a half inches from the top edge where the paint layer is slightly unstable overall, however, the condition of this picture is very good. If the tacking edges were to be reinforced, the picture could be hung as is. The above condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted in 1914, Bouteille et verre is a masterful exploration of the Cubist idiom by one of its early practitioners, Louis Marcoussis.  A Polish émigré in Paris, the artist had long moved in Avant-garde circles. His close friends included Juan Gris, Guillaume Apollinaire and – until he eloped in 1910 with Marcelle Humbert, Marcoussis' mistress  – Pablo Picasso.

In his works from this period, like those of his peers, "seen-reality was displaced by conceived-reality'' (Jean Lafranchis, Marcoussis, sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris, 1961, p. 69.).  The café or bistro, center of Parisian social life, was an obvious candidate for deconstruction, in order to be recreated conceptually.  Here Marcoussis was "naturally surrounded by the accessoires of the new Cubist school, as exacting in its choices as David and his neo-classicists: playing cards, dominos, lighters, pipes, packets of tobacco, boxes of matches...''(ibid, p. 58). Initially respecting the grammar and vocabulary of 'analytical' Cubism, he evolved a unique manner that drew equally on the accretive tendencies and technical experimentation associated with the 'synthetic' period.

Before the War, Marcoussis, like his contemporaries, introduced trompe l'oeil into the compositions recently pioneered by Picasso and Braque: "having assembled a number of objects, such as tobacco packets, printed flyers, wallpaper and faux-bois, he immersed himself into the unknown depths of Cubism.  The declaration of War interrupted these adventurous researches, displacing him for more than four years from the Front Line of Cubism to another front'' (ibid., p. 74). 

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist's wife.

Fig. 1 Pablo Picasso, Verre, 1914, oil on panel, Private Collection, Paris