Portrait of an Army Doctor
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''Portrait of an Army Doctor'' (in French ''Portrait d'un médecin militaire'') is a 1914-15 painting by the French artist, theorist and writer
Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...
. Painted at the fortress city of
Toul Toul () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Geography Toul is between Commercy and Nancy, and the river Moselle and Canal de la Marne au Rhin. Climate Toul ...
(
Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...
) while Gleizes served in the military during the First World War, the paintings abstract circular rhythms and intersecting aslant planes announce the beginning of the second synthetic phase of Cubism.J. Fiona Ragheb, ''Albert Gleizes, Portrait of an Army Doctor'', Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Collection Online
/ref>Daniel Robbins, 1964, ''Albert Gleizes 1881 - 1953, A Retrospective Exhibition'', Published by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, in collaboration with Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund.
/ref>Daniel Robbins, ''Albert Gleizes'', Grove Art Online, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, Oxford University Press, 2009
/ref> The work represents Gleizes's commanding officer, Major Mayer-Simon Lambert (1870-1943), the regimental surgeon in charge of the military hospital at Toul. At least eight preparatory sketches, gouaches and watercolors of the work have survived, though ''Portrait of an Army Doctor'' is one of the only major oil paintings of the period.Peter Brooke, ''Albert Gleizes, Chronology of his life, 1915'', from ''Le Cubisme en majesté, Albert Gleizes'', exhibition catalogue, Musée Picasso, Barcelona; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, 2001
/ref> As other wartime works by Gleizes, ''Portrait of an Army Doctor'' represents a break from the first phase of Cubism. These wartime works mark "the beginning of an attempt to preserve specific and individual visual characteristics while experimenting with a radically different compositional treatment in which broad planes, angled from the perimeter, meet circles." (Robbins, 1964) Rather than based on the ''analysis'' of volumetric objects, the artist strove toward ''synthesis''; something that originated in ''unity''.Peter Brooke, ''Albert Gleizes: For and Against the Twentieth Century'', Yale University Press, 2001
''Portrait of an Army Doctor''—earlier forming part of the collection of art dealer Léonce RosenbergAmédée Ozenfant, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), ''La peinture moderne'', Éditions G. Crès et Cie, 1925
/ref>—was purchased by
Solomon R. Guggenheim Solomon Robert Guggenheim (February 2, 1861 – November 3, 1949) was an American businessman and art collector. He is best known for establishing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Guggen ...
at an important Gleizes exhibition at René Gimpel Galerie in New York City, December 1936 to January 1937 (no. 8). The work forms part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection. It was gifted to the museum by Solomon Guggenheim in 1937 (the year of the formation of the foundation). The painting is in the permanent collection of the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
in New York City.


Description

''Portrait of an Army Doctor'' is an oil painting on canvas with dimensions inscribed ''Alb. Gleizes, Toul 1914'', lower right. An early photograph of the work shows the inscribed date as 1914–15. Gleizes's works from this period, just as those of the early 1920s, are "characterized by dynamic intersections of vertical, diagonal, horizontal and circular movements", writes art historian Daniel Robbins, "austere in touch but loaded with energetic pattern." Gleizes brings into practice an effect reminiscent of Divisionist theory via the incorporation of colored squares within three sections of the canvas, one of which is composed of alternating pigments of contrasting blues and reds. The use of blue, white and red in the overall composition recall the colors of the
French flag The national flag of France (french: link=no, drapeau français) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. It is known to English speakers as the ''Tricolour'' (), although the flag of Ireland ...
. Such a display of patriotism was not uncommon among the Cubists, even leading up to the war. French flags can be seen in the works of
Roger de La Fresnaye Roger de La Fresnaye (; 11 July 1885 – 27 November 1925) was a French Cubist painter. Early years and education La Fresnaye was born in Le Mans where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed. The La Fresnayes were ...
; ''Fourteenth of July'', 1913-14 (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX), and ''The Conquest of the Air'', 1913 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). The Cubo-Futurist
Gino Severini Gino Severini (7 April 1883 – 26 February 1966) was an Italian painter and a leading member of the Futurist movement. For much of his life he divided his time between Paris and Rome. He was associated with neo-classicism and the "return to orde ...
, too, included the French flag in his 1913 painting ''Train of the Wounded'', 1913. While not depicting the flag itself, wartime works by
Jean Metzinger Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (; 24 June 1883 – 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1 ...
dominantly exhibit blues and reds, along with army green, in such works as '' Soldat jouant aux échecs (Soldier at a Game of Chess)'', 1914–15,
Smart Museum of Art The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The permanent collection has over 15,000 objects. Admission is free and open to the general public. The Smart Muse ...
, and '' Femme au miroir (Lady at her Dressing Table)'', April 1916. In 1915 Gleizes published an article in
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
's patriotic review, ''Le Mot'' in which he attacks critics who accuse the new tendencies in art of being unpatriotic. The final issue of ''Le Mot'' includes a sketch by Gleizes based on wounded soldiers returning from a battle at Bois le Prêtre. Despite its descriptive title, the subject matter of ''Portrait of an Army Doctor'' has practically disappeared. The canvas is no longer analyzed or structured geometrically according to the
golden ratio In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ( ...
, though the armrest of the chair is treated as the beginning of a
Fibonacci spiral Fibonacci (; also , ; – ), also known as Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Bigollo Pisano ('Leonardo the Traveller from Pisa'), was an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be "the most talented Western ...
. The masses of the composition are arranged in quasi-equilibrium. The center of the sitter face is the superior vertex of a triangular construct that extends toward the outer edges of the canvas. The intersection of the two arcs that compose the shoulders is centered on the vertical axis. The source of light is undetermined, or omnidirectional, just as the vantage point of the artist, in accord with the Cubist principle of 'simultaneity' (or multiple perspective): "a succession of descriptive aspects of the external world... by giving a multiple series of appearances, each one seen in its own perspective", writes Gleizes, "a succession of descriptive states. Waking up, this eye lurched from one point of view to the other, jumped back again, and was again thrown into a state of excitement."Albert Gleizes, ''Painting and Representational Perspective'', Lecture dated Paris, 22 March 1927, given in the Carnegie Foundation for the French Intellectual Union and published by Éditions Moly Sabata 1927
Republished in ''Puissances du Cubisme'', Eds Présence, Chambery, 1969. Translation Peter Brooke
Cubism, with its new geometry, its dynamism and multiple view-point perspective, not only represented a departure from Euclid's model, but it achieved, according to Gleizes and Metzinger, a better representation of the real world: one that was mobile and changing in time. For Gleizes, Cubism represented a "normal evolution of an art that was mobile like life itself".
Multiple perspective was in itself a protest against painting defined as an art based on space, that is to say, static. An aspiration towards mobility begins to appear and to appeal to the eye. The eye is required to enter into that collaboration which is necessary if it wishes to emerge from the torpor to which it had been reduced at the insistence of the single point perspective of the Renaissance; painting makes a legitimate claim to be regarded as an art of time... Breaking up the plane into surfaces of different sizes reduced to geometrical forms. Sometimes certain indications of figures appear in this assemblage, obtained with the help of a few lines and several suggestive points. (Gleizes, 1927)
While depth perception and perspective have been subdued to a large extent, the primary structural lines appear to recede or converge toward a multitude of
vanishing point A vanishing point is a point on the image plane of a perspective drawing where the two-dimensional perspective projections of mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge. When the set of parallel lines is perpendicul ...
s located at infinity. Though, unlike those of classical perspective, these vanishing points are not placed on a given horizon (a theoretical line that represents the eye level of the observer), nor do they allow the viewer to reconstruct the relative distance of parts or features of an object. Rather, they are placed on various horizons. The viewer is observing a non-linear scene where the picture plane is not parallel to any of the scene's multiple axes, giving the appearance of different forms of calculated perspective. Surfaces appear to overlap creating a sense of
occlusion Occlusion may refer to: Health and fitness * Occlusion (dentistry), the manner in which the upper and lower teeth come together when the mouth is closed * Occlusion miliaria, a skin condition * Occlusive dressing, an air- and water-tight trauma ...
, but the resulting information is insufficient to allow the observer to recreate depth of field. By removing these optical cues, the geometrical method of perspective used to create the illusion of form, space and depth since the Renaissance, ''the artifice of an illusionistic trickery'' as Metzinger called it,Jean Metzinger, ''Le Cubisme était Né: Souvenirs par Jean Metzinger'' (Cubism was Born), Présence, Chambéry, 1972. (This text written by Jean Metzinger was supplied to the publisher Henri Viaud by Metzinger's widow Suzanne Phocas). Translation Peter Brooke Gleizes's aim was to arrive at what he perceived as 'truth', the constructive essence of the physical world.
So, now that we are in possession of the means (and I firmly believe that we are) we must pitilessly reject the image of the Renaissance that is addressed exclusively to the senses, but, at the same time, we should not fear, should the occasion present itself, an image determined by geometry, by the square, the right angle, because it, in its nature, corresponds to the higher stages. The Renaissance image, I repeat, bears no, or too little, relation to them; the new image will give more meaning and variety to the space. (Gleizes)
We are in the age of synthesis. An hour in the life of a man today raises more levels, insights, actions, than a year of that of any other century. That is what I try to say in my art. The rapid sketch of an Impressionist crystallised the fragility of a sensation; it was immobilized in his picture. The painting of today must crystallise a thousand sensations in an aesthetic order. And I see that for that there is no need to reveal other laws, other theorems with definitive forms. A beauty achieved through a mathematical order can only have a relative life; the universal kaleidoscope cannot be fitted into the framework of a system..." (Gleizes, c.1916, letter addressed to )
From 1914 to the end of Gleizes's New York period—however nonrepresentational—works by the artist continued to be shaped by his personal experience, by the conviction that art was a social function, susceptible to theoretical formulation, and imbued with optimism. Gleizes's nonrepresentational paintings and those with an apparent visual basis existed side by side, differing only, writes Daniel Robbins, in "the degree of abstraction hidden by the uniformity with which they were painted and by the constant effort to tie the plastic realization of the painting to a specific, even unique, experience."


Background

Many of the leading Cubists were mobilized at the outset of the First World War: Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Duchamp-Villon,
Roger de La Fresnaye Roger de La Fresnaye (; 11 July 1885 – 27 November 1925) was a French Cubist painter. Early years and education La Fresnaye was born in Le Mans where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed. The La Fresnayes were ...
, and Jean Metzinger,Christopher Green, ''Cubism and its Enemies, Modern Movements and Reaction in French Art, 1916–1928'', Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1987, pp. 13-47, 215 yet despite the radical interruption, they were able to continue producing styles of Cubism that extended beyond pre-war attitudes. Cubism evolved as a result of both nationalistic pressures and from the evasion of the atrocities of war. There came the need to diverge further away from the representation of things. As the divide between art and life grew, the need for a process of distillation (a process of purification) became increasingly ubiquitous across the spectrum of Cubist activity. Orderly qualities and autonomous purity became a prime concern.Christopher Green, ''Late Cubism'', MoMA, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2009
/ref> This tendency toward wholesale geometric abstraction from 1914 through the mid-1920s has been linked to broader ideological shift towards conservatism in both French society and culture. Metzinger served very close to the front during World War I, as a medical aide, and was possibly with his surgical automobile when he painted '' Soldier at a Game of Chess''The Art of JAMA: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 3, M. Therese Southgate, Oxford University Press, Mar 17, 2011
/ref> (though evidence suggests the work may have been painted prior to his mobilization).Correspondance échangée entre Léonce Rosenberg et Jean Metzinger, 25 May 1916, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre de documentation et de recherche du MNAM/Cci, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (Metzinger mentions the paintings as titled ''Joueur d'échecs'')
/ref> However, very few of his works represent scenes associated with war. And rather than delving into the actual carnage of war, this painting evokes an idealized theory of war. Instead, his interest is captured by mathematical rationality, order, his faith in humanity and modernity. The war, however, is very present in this work, by the presence of the soldier and his engagement with chess, simultaneously an intellectual game and a battle. This period of profound reflection contributed to the constitution of a new
mindset Mindset is an "established set of attitudes, esp. regarded as typical of a particular group's social or cultural values; the outlook, philosophy, or values of a person; (now also more generally) frame of mind, attitude, ecte: anddisposition." ...
; a prerequisite for fundamental change. The ''flat surface'' became the starting point for a revaluation of the fundamental principles of painting. Rather than relying strictly on the intellect, the focus placed on the immediate experience of the senses, on the idea according to Gleizes, that form, 'changing the directions of its movement, will change its dimensions', while revealing the "basic elements" of painting, the "true, solid rules - rules which could be generally applied".Albert Gleizes, ''L'Epopée'', written in 1925, published in ''Le Rouge et le Noir'', 1929. First published under the title ''Kubismus'', 1928. English translation, ''The Epic, From immobile form to mobile form'' by Peter Brooke
/ref> Fernand Léger was mobilized in October 1914, and served as a sapper close to the front in
Forest of Argonne The Forest of Argonne () is a long strip of mountainous and wild woodland in northeastern France, approximately east of Paris. The forest measures roughly long and wide filled with many small hills and deep valleys formed by water run-off fro ...
. He drew the various activities of his comrades during his free time, with virtually no possibility of working on canvas. Between the autumn of 1914 and 1917 he was able to produce only one work on canvas, ''Soldier with a pipe'' (''Le Soldat à la Pipe''). Unlike the "Impressionism of form" and dissection of the subject by
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and Georges Braque, Gleizes attempted to create a synthetic art that incorporated social values. He strove to capture the absolute 'order' and 'truth' of his subject, believing in the Universality and superiority of rhythmic harmonies over subjective responses. These values had preoccupied the artist since his years at the
Abbaye de Créteil L'Abbaye de Créteil or Abbaye group (french: Le Groupe de l'Abbaye) was a utopian artistic and literary community founded during the month of October, 1906. It was named after the Créteil Abbey, as most gatherings took place in that suburb of P ...
, a self-supporting collective of artists and writers he co-founded during the fall of 1906 with
Alexandre Mercereau Alexandre Mercereau (22 October 1884, in Paris – 1945) was a French symbolist poet and critic associated with Unanimism and the Abbaye de Créteil. He founded the Villa Médicis Libre, which helped impoverished artists and operated as charitable ...
, René Arcos, Henri-Martin Barzun, and
Charles Vildrac Charles Vildrac (November 22, 1882 – June 25, 1971), born "Charles Messager",''1971 Britannica Book of the Year'' (for events of 1971), "Obituaries 1971" article, page 532, "Vildrac, Charles" item was a French libertarian playwright, poet a ...
.


Mobilization

Gleizes had been conscripted at the outset of the war (August 1914) and sent to the garrison town of Toul, close to the Eastern front (120 km from Sainte-Menehould, where his close friend Jean Metzinger was mobilized) to serve in the 167e régiment d'infanterie (from which the 367e régiment d'infanterie was formed). He was stationed in the Caserne Maréchal-Ney (Plateau Saint-Georges), attached to the ''Service de Santé des Armées'', in the infirmary of the unit. Upon giving his name to the receiving sergeant he was asked if he had any relation to the Cubist painter. When Gleizes answered that he was the Cubist painter he was told to step aside. Sergeant (soon to become a well-known paleontologist) happened to be an avid enthusiast of modern art. Shortly thereafter Gleizes was assigned the role of providing entertainment for the troops. His experience with artistic and literary activities at the Abbey of Créteil and the Association Ernest Renan, along with his connection to the distinguished author and actor Maxime Léry, may have helped secure the post. His close associates at the garrison included
Carlos Salzedo Carlos Salzedo (6 April 1885 – 17 August 1961) was a French harpist, pianist, composer and conductor. His compositions made the harp into a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds through his ...
, a harpist responsible for musical activities; the dentist Théo Morinaud, and early childhood friend from Courbevoie and possibly the subject of several pairings by Gleizes, including '' l'Homme au Balcon (Man on a Balcony)'', Philadelphia Museum of Art. Also stationed at Toul were the painters
Georges Valmier Georges Valmier (11 April 1885 – 25 March 1937) was a French painter. His work encompassed the great movements in the modern history of painting, starting with Impressionism in his early years, then Cubism which he discovered when he was ar ...
, Paul Colin, and the composer
Florent Schmitt Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' (Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of th ...
. Gleizes activities as artistic and literary impresario at the fortress included monologues reciting classical, romantic and Symbolist poetry by
Paul Fort Jules-Jean-Paul Fort (1 February 1872 – 20 April 1960) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. At the age of 18, reacting against the Naturalistic theatre, Fort founded the Théâtre d'Art (1890–93). He also founded and edit ...
,
Jules Laforgue Jules Laforgue (; 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbol ...
,
Tristan Corbière Tristan Corbière (18 July 1845 – 1 March 1875), born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet born in Coat-Congar, Ploujean (now part of Morlaix) in Brittany, where he lived most of his life before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 29 ...
,
Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...
and Stéphane Mallarmé. Gleizes' mobilization was an obstacle to his production of artwork, though he was able to work on small scale, and ultimately produced one relatively large piece, ''Portrait of an Army Doctor''.
The painter Gleizes, who wrote a book on Cubism, writes to a friend: "From Toul, advanced outpost on the Eastern border, I am sending you this card. There is no question of Cubism at the moment or simultanism. When will we speak of it again? When will we do it again? Soon I hope, and with the glory of having crushed the German felony, having extirpated the Prussian Hydra and to be able to return freely in French Alsace-Lorraine forever. I have absolute confidence in your effort, your mission." (Gleizes, ''L'Intransigeant'', August 1914)
An admirer of his work, his commanding officer—the regimental surgeon portrayed by Gleizes in this painting—made arrangements so that Gleizes could continue to paint while mobilized at Toul. This work, painted at the outset of the Crystal Cubist period, was a precursor to Gleizes's abstract paintings of 1915–16. ''Portrait of an Army Doctor'' consists of broad, overlapping planes of brilliant color, dynamically intersecting vertical, diagonal, horizontal lines coupled with circular movements. This painting, along with his ''Portrait de Florent Schmitt, Le Chant de guerre'' (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), according to Gleizes, represented a break from both 'Cubism of analysis', and from the representation of volume undertaken during the first period of Cubism. He was now on a path that lead to 'synthesis', with its starting point in 'unity'. This unity, and the highly crystalline geometricized materialization consisting of superimposed constituent planes, ultimately referred to by the French poet and art critic
Maurice Raynal Portrait of Maurice Raynal (1911), by Juan Gris. Maurice Raynal (3 February 1884, Paris – 18 September 1954, Suresnes) was a French art critic and an ardent propagandist of cubism. Some publications *''Essai de Définition de la Peinture C ...
as Crystal Cubism, would soon be described by Gleizes in '' La Peinture et ses lois'' (1922–23), as 'simultaneous movements of translation and rotation of the plane'.Peter Brooke, ''Painting and Its Laws'', Albert Gleizes, ''La peinture et ses lois, Ce qui devait sortir du Cubisme'', Paris 1924
/ref> The synthetic factor was taken furthest of all from within the Cubists by Gleizes. Basing himself on his 1915 abstractions, Gleizes sought to clarify his methods further in ''La Peinture et ses lois'', deducing the fundamental principles of painting from the picture plane, its proportions, the movement of the human eye and the universal physical laws. These theoretical postulates, later referred to as translation-rotation, according to Robbins, rank "with the writings of Mondrian and Malevich as one of the most thorough expositions of the principles of abstract art, which in his case entailed the rejection not only of representation but also of geometric forms". Many drawings, gouaches and watercolors were realized by the artist in and around Toul. He kept the landscapes and portrait sketches in a drawer, until one day they were discover by a private (a miner) who removed them all only to tack them on the wall with toothpicks for an exhibition. Gleizes remarked that educated or cultured soldiers had more difficulty with his paintings than those with little or no intellectual pretensions. ''Portrait d'un médecin militaire'' generated mixed responses. The Professor of Physiology from the Faculty of Nancy in charge of the infirmary at Toul, Dr. Lambert, was more enthusiastic about his portrait by Valmier than that of Gleizes:
The portrait that he almiermade of the Doctor was excellent, a very good likeness that remained in the classical idiom. But for myself, I wanted to remain faithful to Cubism and not to play games with my own convictions. So the portrait I envisaged was a little surprising for the good doctor's habits of mind. He did not conceal his way of thinking, but he let me do what I wanted. I made of him, from memory, a large number of drawings in pencil, in pen and ink, in ink wash. I made a series of watercolors and gouaches. When he saw them, the model was pretty shaken. When my studies seemed to be ready, I did the oil painting. I painted the portrait in the Marshall Ney's room. I nailed a canvas I had ordered from Nancy to the wall and got down to work. When it was finished, it received the approval of my friends, the unsophisticated ones, who were all able to recognise Dr. Lambert perfectly well. The others were divided. As for the interested party, he refused, definitely, but amicably, to take possession of it. To please me, he only accepted the final little gouache which I had used for the execution of the canvas. (Albert Gleizes, ''Souvenirs'', c. 1942)
The ''Portrait d'un médecin militaire'', commissioned by Dr. Lambert, is "impressive" writes art historian Peter Brooke: :"Although Gleizes tells the story lightheartedly, it is a serious, almost tragic painting, in which the subject (the poor Dr. Lambert) has almost disappeared—reduced to a presence rather than a likeness—in a construction in which vertical parallel lines, and therefor a static, monumental character, prevail. Together with the second ''Portrait of Florent Schmitt'' (the ''Chant de guerre''), it could be described as the furthest point reached by this Cubism striving towards the laws of the 'object'—the properties of the picture space itself—but still taking the 'subject'—the thing represented—as its starting point." (Brooke, 2001, p. 46) Shortly thereafter,
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
asked Gleizes to design the set and costumes for the
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
play, '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', along with Valmier.


Demobilization

Gleizes was demobilized, with the help of his soon to be wife Juliette Roche, in September 1915. Gleizes published an article in
Ricciotto Canudo Ricciotto Canudo (; 2 January 1877, Gioia del Colle – 10 November 1923, Paris) was an early Italian film theoretician who lived primarily in France. In 1913 he published a bimonthly avant-garde magazine entitled ''Montjoie!'', promoting Cubism ...
's ''Montjoie'' entitled ''Cubisme et la tradition''. It was through the intermediary of Cuando that Gleizes met the artist Juliette Roche. She was a childhood friend of
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
and the daughter of an influential politician of the 3rd Republic, Jules Roche.Fondation Gleizes, Chronologie
During the months of autumn, following his demobilization in 1915, Gleizes married Juliette Roche and moved to New York. There they were met by
Carlos Salzedo Carlos Salzedo (6 April 1885 – 17 August 1961) was a French harpist, pianist, composer and conductor. His compositions made the harp into a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds through his ...
,
Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...
,
Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...
,
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
, and
Jean Crotti Jean Crotti (24 April 1878 – 30 January 1958) was a French painter. Crotti was born in Bulle, Fribourg, Switzerland. He first studied in Munich, Germany at the School of Decorative Arts, then at age 23 moved to Paris to study art at the ...
(who would eventually marry Suzanne Duchamp). Marcel Duchamp had emigrated to New York several months earlier after being judged physically unfit for his service in the military. Shortly after his arrival, Gleizes, accompanied by Salzedo, frequented jazz clubs in Harlem. With all it had to offer, New York had a strong impact on the artist's production, leading to abstract works virtually free of visual subject matter. Many works by Gleizes painted at Toul between 1914 and 1915 were auctioned in New York, for the occasion of the late John Quinn exhibition and sale of modern and ultra-modern art at the American Art Galleries, conducted by Bernet and Parke, with a catalogue published by American Art Association, New York, 1927.


Recent exhibitions

''Le cubisme'', 17 October 2018 to 25 February 2019,
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, the first large-scale exhibition devoted to Cubism in France since 1973, with over 300 works on display. The 1973 exhibition, ''Les Cubistes'', included over 180 works and was held at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. The motivation for the Pompidou exhibition resides in broadening the scope of Cubism, usually focused on Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, to include the major contributions of the Salon Cubists, the
Section d'Or The Section d'Or ("Golden Section"), also known as Groupe de Puteaux or Puteaux Group, was a collective of Painting, painters, sculptors, poets and critics associated with Cubism and Orphism (art), Orphism. Based in the Parisian suburbs, the grou ...
, and others who participated in the over-all movement. The exhibition is held at
Kunstmuseum Basel The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends back to ...
, from 31 March to 5 August 2019.


Further reading


''Masterpieces from the Guggenheim collection: from Picasso to Pollock''
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Peggy Guggenheim collections, Venice, 1991, n.14 * ''Albert Gleizes. Le cubisme en majesté'', cat. exp., Barcelona, Museu Picasso; Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2001 * A. Varichon, ''Albert Gleizes. Catalogue raisonné'', Paris, Fondation Gleizes, Somogy, 1998 * C. Briend, ''Le Chant de guerre'', un portrait de Florent Schmitt par Albert Gleizes, La Revue des musées de France, nº 4, 2008 * Frans Peterse, ''Kubisme uit de collectie van de Triton Foundation'' (''Cubist art from the Triton Foundation''), exhibition catalogue, The Hague, 2006, p. 31 * Philip Denis Cate, ''Une alternative cohérente'', in Anisabelle Berès and Michel Arveiller, ''Au temps des Cubistes, 1910-1920'', exhibition catalogue, Paris, Galerie Berès, 2006, p. 40 * La Revue des Musées de France: Revue du Louvre, October 2008, pp. 96, 103, note 19 * S.B., ''Le pays de Charente à Paris'', Courrier de Charente, 10 April 2009
Le Musée Guggenheim Bilbao présente le 23 septembre 2014 ''L’art de notre temps''. Chefs-d’œuvres des Collections Guggenheim. 23 September 2014 – 25 January 2015. 23 October 2014 – 3 May 2015. Albert Gleizes, ''Retrato de un médico del ejército''
["Salles 305 et 306 Les débuts du XXe siècle furent une période fertile en expérimentations artistiques dans toute l’Europe. En France, et concrètement à Paris, des artistes comme Albert Gleizes développent un vocabulaire cubiste qui rejette la perspective traditionnelle et la représentation illusionniste de l’espace, comme nous pouvons le voir avec le ''Portrait d'un médecin militaire'', 1914–15"] * ''Présence d'Albert Gleizes'', Zodiaque, nos. 6–7, January, 1952, pp. 32-33
''Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Museum of Non-Objective painting''
opening April 29, 1952, an exhibition showing the evolution in painting from 1900 to 1952. Academism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, Abstraction to Non-Objectivity." Albert Gleizes, ''Portrait of a Military Doctor'' (1914), No. 51
''Art of tomorrow: fifth catalogue of the Solomon R. Guggenheim collection of non-objective paintings''
part of which is temporarily exhibited at 24 East 54th Street, New York City, opening June 1st, 1939, Albert Gleizes, ''Portrait of a Military Doctor'' (1914), No. 473, exhibition catalogue
Acquisitions of the 1930s and 1940s: a selection of paintings, watercolors, and drawings in tribute to Baroness Hilla von Rebay, 1890-1967
Published by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1968, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Library and Archives
''Third enlarged catalogue of the Solomon R. Guggeneheim collection of non-objective paintings''
March 7th until April 17th, 1938, Gibbes memorial art gallery, Charleston, South Carolina". Albert Gleizes, ''Portrait of a Military Doctor'' (1914), No. 238 * Ozenfant and Jeanneret, ''Le Cubisme: Deuxième époque'', L'Esprit Nouveau, Paris, no. 24, 1924, p. 2676 * ''Les peintres et sculpteurs qui servent aux armées, Les soldats-peintre, Sur la ligne de feu'': "Le peintre Albert Gleizes, qui fut et demeure le champion déterminé du cubisme, est caporal instructeur à Toul. Son beau-frère, le puissant et original prosateur Jacques Nayral, dont le périrait cubiste fit sensation, il y a deux ou trois ans, au Salon d'automne, vient d'être tué sur le front..."Le Petit Parisien, ''Les peintres et sculpteurs qui servent aux armées'', ''Sur la ligne de feu'', 4 May 2015, National Library of France
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References


External links


Fondation Albert Gleizes

Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais, Agence photographique


* ttps://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/c9n4Xyr/rM8BgM ''L'œuvre Paysage de Toul'', Centre Pompidou
Douglas Cooper, ''The Cubist Epoch'', Phaidon Press Limited 1970
in association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
''Painting the Century'', National Portrait Gallery, 26 October 2000 - 4 February 2001
Works chosen for their historical significance include Albert Gleizes, ''Portrait of an Army Doctor'' {{Cubism Paintings by Albert Gleizes Cubist paintings 1914 paintings 1915 paintings 20th-century portraits Paintings in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum