Sketch for "Puteaux (Smoke and Trees in Bloom, No. 2)"

Gallery 272, Modern and Contemporary Art, second floor

Main Building

Sketch for "Puteaux (Smoke and Trees in Bloom, No. 2)"

1912

Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp) (French, 1875–1963)

One of Villon’s most important early Cubist paintings was a large landscape with a nude reclining across the foreground, entitled Puteaux (Smoke and Trees in Bloom). Villon created a composition filled with a complex panoply of geometric forms that were imbued with rhythmic movement. It was his usual method to begin a work by starting with sketches from nature and moving gradually toward abstraction. For this painting, he made four small sketches, each focusing on areas of the final painting that were somewhat more naturalistic in style. All four sketches, including this one depicting flowering trees against a spring-green background, were exhibited in the New York Armory Show of 1913.

Gallery 272, Modern and Contemporary Art, second floor

Object Details

Title:

Sketch for "Puteaux (Smoke and Trees in Bloom, No. 2)"

Date:

1912

Artist:

Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp) (French, 1875–1963)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

18 1/4 x 21 3/4 inches (46.3 x 55.2 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950

Accession Number:

1950-134-189

Geography:

Made in France, Europe

Provenance

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Gallery 272, Modern and Contemporary Art, second floor

Main Building

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