''Woman with Animals'', originally referred to as ''La dame aux bêtes'' and ''Portrait de Mme D.V.'' or ''Madame Raymond Duchamp-Villon'', is a painting created late 1913 and completed during the month of February, 1914, 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 ...

. The painting was exhibited at the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

, Paris, 1 March – 30 April 1914 (titled ''Portrait de Mme D.V.''). ''Woman with animals'' is executed in a personal

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

style noted by the fusing background and figure, the multiple perspective or successive views at various moments in time of the Mrs. Duchamp-Villon's face and other elements, the freestyle brushstrokes delineating juxtaposing planes. The work was restored in 1940 by

Jacques Villon Jacques Villon (July 31, 1875 – June 9, 1963), also known as Gaston Duchamp, was a French Cubist and Abstract art, abstract painter and printmaker. Early life Born Émile Méry Frédéric Gaston Duchamp in Damville, Eure, Damville, Eure, ...

and

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...

. Formerly in the collection of

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 ...

, the work—along with a 1913 lavis and gouache study of the same subject entitled ''La femme aux bêtes''—has been in the

Peggy Guggenheim Collection The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the , an 18th-century palace, which was the home ...

, Venice, Italy, since 1940.

Description

''Woman with animals (Madame Raymond Duchamp-Villon)'' is an oil painting on canvas with dimensions 196.4 x 114.1 cm (77.3 by 45.9 inches), signed and dated ''Alb Gleizes, 1914'', lower right. Gleizes formally resolves a domestic interior scene in a lucid and logically self-conscious synthetic style, as in several other paintings of this period (e.g., ''Femmes cousant'', Kröller-Müller Museum, ''Femmes assises à une fenêtre'', private collection, ''Portrait of Igor Stravinsky'', Museum of Modern Art, and ''Woman at the piano'', Philadelphia Museum of Art). The limited color harmonies of 1910 through 1912 already questioned in 1913 had now been entirely replaced by an unlimited color palette. The seated woman represents the wife of

Raymond Duchamp-Villon Raymond Duchamp-Villon (5 November 1876 – 9 October 1918) was a French sculptor. Life and art Duchamp-Villon was born Pierre-Maurice-Raymond Duchamp in Damville, Eure, in the Normandy region of France, the second son of Eugène and Lucie Ducha ...

, the sculptor who took part in the discussions of 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 ...

group at Puteaux during 1911 and 1912. She is portrayed as "the epitome of bourgeois complacency", in a large armchair, with her dog and two cats, wedding band, and string of beads. Cubist elements observed here are the fusion of the background and figure, the frontal, centralized pose, the multiple or successive views of the Mrs. Duchamp-Villon's face, the freestyle brushstrokes delineating juxtaposing planes, and the dog's wagging tail seen at successive moments in time. The planar intersections and lines of force "express notions of the dynamic interpenetration of matter and atmosphere." (Guggenheim)

References

External links

Fondation Albert Gleizes

Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais, Agence photographique

André Salmon, ''Artistes d'hier et d'aujourd'hui'', L'Art Vivant, 6th edition, Paris, 1920
{{Cubism Paintings by Albert Gleizes Cubist paintings 1914 paintings Peggy Guggenheim Collection 20th-century portraits Portraits of women Dogs in art Cats in art