PIERRE DUBREUIL | 'La Cloche à Fromage'

oil print, mounted, titled in pencil on the mount, signed 'P. Dubreuil, M. L. S. P' and titled in pencil, annotated '42. The Cheese Bowl' in ink,' and with the photographer's red 'DB 69' stamp on the reverse, circa 1929

The photographer to the Association Belge de Photographie, Brussels Acquired from the above

London, The Royal Photographic Society, Pierre Dubreuil, August 1935 Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Pierre Dubreuil Photographies 1896-1935, October 1987 - January 1988

San Diego, The Museum of Photographic Arts, Pierre Dubreuil Rediscovered: The Masterprints 1900-1935, September - November 1988, and traveling thereafter to:

New York, Alliance Française, 1989

The Detroit Institute of the Arts, 1990

This dramatic and abstract oil print, trimmed to the image and on double-weight paper with a very matte surface, is in generally excellent condition. The photograph is affixed to a textured, cream-colored paper mount: the upper and lower left corners are affixed with hinges and the upper, lower, and right edges of the print appear to be affixed to the mount with adhesive. The mount is lightly soiled on the front and reverse from handling. There is a tack-hole along the upper edge of the mount. Along the upper edge on the reverse of the mount is a thin yellowed adhesive remnant, suggesting that the mount was previously affixed to a secondary mount. Also on the reverse, '7' [circled] and 'D081/M' are written in an unidentified hand in pencil.
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.

Dubreuil’s body of work is characterized by novel imagery, unexpected composition, and unusual perspective.  With its lively play of light as refracted by the bowl’s cut glass sides, La Cloche à Fromage shares clear compositional similarities with Vorticism, a movement whose art was non-representational, vigorously geometric, and characterized by a dynamic angularity. The English response to the continental Futurist and Cubist movements, a group exhibition in London in 1914 put the movement before the public, and a series of manifestos were published in the graphically precocious journal BLAST.  As Alvin Langdon Coburn worked in his Vortographs with an assembly of mirrors and a selection of crystals and prisms, Dubreuil focuses appropriated aspects of Vorticism to a different goal, the visual representation of an idea.  In La Cloche à Fromage, Dubreuil's use of light creates a visual vibration, echoing the literal translation of the title (The Cheese Bell).  Dubreuil was one of the most inventive photographers of his day: a technical master of the medium and a brilliant aesthetic innovator.  Like many photographers working in the early decades of the 20^th century, Dubreuil experimented with the full range of photographic processes then available, including platinum, carbon, gum bichromate, and the Rawlins oil process.  While a demanding process, the Rawlins process had the advantage of allowing Dubreuil a great deal of control over the final appearance of his photographs; the resultant prints had the added benefit of being permanent.  With its lush blacks, bright highlights, and impressive range of charcoal-like gray tones, this oil print of La Cloche à Fromage demonstrates Dubreuil’s technical mastery of his medium.   

The photograph offered here is believed to be one of only three known prints of this image and was included in the two major modern exhibitions of Pierre Dubreuil’s work – Pierre Dubreuil, Photographs 1896 - 1935, at the Centre Pompidou in 1987; and the traveling exhibition, Pierre Dubreuil Rediscovered, originating at San Diego's Museum of Photographic Arts in 1988.  It comes originally from the collection of the Association Belge de Photographie, Brussels, for which he was an active member and President.  Another print of this image was sold in these rooms in 1990 from the collection of Graham Nash.