About this lot

Description

Portrait de Stravinsky signed and dated 'Alb Gleizes 21' (lower right) pencil and coloured crayons (Dimensions: 21 x 14cm)

(21 x 14cm)

Footnote: Provenance The Artist's Studio Sale; Sotheby's, London, 6 December 1978, lot 434 Madame Albert Gleizes titled the present lot in preparation for the Sotheby's sale in 1978 A hugely significant figure in 20th-century art, Albert Gleizes is remembered for his artistic endeavours, his theoretical treatise, and for being the self-proclaimed founder of Cubism. In 1912, Gleizes formed The Section d’Or (‘Golden Section’), a collective of painters, sculptors, poets and critics associated with Cubism and Orphism. The same year, alongside Jean Metzinger, Gleizes authored Du “Cubisme” (About Cubism), the first major discourse concerning Cubism, in which they wrote “An object does not have one absolute shape, it has several…too bad if logic is offended”. Although this pencil portrait of composer Igor Stravinsky is diminutive in comparison to his later work; defining characteristics of Gleizes’ work, including a disregard for “logic”, juxtaposed geometric forms and multiple perspective, are evident. In 1914, Gleizes completed a large-scale portrait of Stravinsky. Bequeathed by art collector Richard S. Zeisler in 2007, it is now part of MoMA’s permanent collection in New York. In 1999, a preparatory charcoal sketch for this painting was sold at Christie’s, New York, 23 February 1999, lot 16, for USD 10,350.

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