Cubist Portrait

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, lower right: GM [monogram] / 1915; labels on stretcher: Rose Fried Gallery / 40 East 68 Street / New York 21 N.Y.; signed, on label, on stretcher: Metzinger / 12 Ave. Felix Faune / Paris 8; label: L'Effort Moderne / Leone ROSENBERG / EDITEUR D'ART / 10 Rue du la Baume Paris / No. 5439 / Metzinger / 1916 / Photo No 1543; stamps, on reverse, lower right and lower left.

Label

Jean Metzinger was one of a small group of artists who worked to popularize Cubism in the first years after Picasso and Braque had developed the style. Metzinger worked to reduce pictorial complexity in his work, favoring intelligibility and accessibility. In Cubist Portrait we can readily find the young woman who is the subject—even if we cannot discern her identity. Her head is round, her hair worn in a neat bun, and a feather emerges from her flowered hat. Her body maintains its distinctiveness as well. She stands clearly in front of the background. Despite the angular abstraction of her surroundings, we can sense that she is in the foreground and the rest of the composition falls behind her.

Metzinger and his colleague Albert Gleizes collaborated in 1912 to write an introductory text titled Du Cubisme. It was, and is, essential reading on the subject. This essay quickly made them sought after mentors for many of the international artists streaming into Paris in the years before World War I. By the time the war broke out in 1914, Cubism and its variants had begun to inspire new approaches to painting and sculpture from Moscow to Buenos Aires. Jean Metzinger was one of the style’s most steadfast prophets.

From the 2019 exhibition Cubism and Its Aftershocks, curated by John R. Stomberg Ph.D, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director

Course History

ARTH 82, History of Museums and Collecting, Joy Kenseth, Spring 2012

ARTH 16.2, Picasso: The Vollard Suite, Michael R. Taylor, Fall 2013

THEA 90, Contemporary Practices in U.S. Theater, Laurie Cherba Kohn, Fall 2013

WRIT 5, The Waste Land, Before and After, Melissa Zeiger, Fall 2013

ARTH 83, History of Museums and Collecting, Joy Kenseth, Spring 2015

ARTH 89.05, Art History: Theory and Method, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Fall 2019

ARTH 89.05, Art History: Theory and Method, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Fall 2019

German 10.06, A Visual History of Germany, Heidi Denzel, Winter 2024

Exhibition History

20th Century Masters from the Permanent Collection, Barrows Windows, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 3-March 5, 1978.

Art From the Ivory Tower: Selections from College and University Collections, Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, April 9-May 29, 1983, no.22.

Cubism and Its Affinities, Strauss and Barrows Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 9-September 5, 1976.

Cubism and Its Aftershocks, Citrin Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-February 16, 2020.

Cubism and Its Influence, Barrows Print Room, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 17-March 30, 1975.

Cubism and Its Legacy, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 17-December 20, 2013.

Cubism, Professor Wilmerding, Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 11-28, 1977.

Cubism: From Advanced Art History Seminar to Museum Installation, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 28, 2004-February 20, 2005.

Cubist Art, Barrows Windows, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 4-March 20, 1977.

Cubists, Professor Jacobus, Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 6, 1979-August 18, 1981.

Palmer Lounge, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 1973.

The Dartmouth Collection: 19th & 20th Century Paintings, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 17-November 6, 1982.

The Machine in the Garden: Cubist Art from the Hood Collection, Alumni College 1986, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 26-August 24, 1986.

Publication History

"Art From the Ivory Tower: Selections from College and University Collections", Clinton, New York: Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, 1983, p.22.

Provenance

Acquired by Léonce Rosenberg (1879-1947), Paris, date unknown; to Galerie de Le'Effor Moderne, Paris, date unknown; Rose Fried Gallery, New York, date unknown; sold to present collection, 1959.

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Subjects