Femme au collier

Inscriptions: Signed and dated 1919 (lower center)

Provenance: Léonce Rosenberg, Galerie de l’Effort Moderne, Paris.

Jacque Dubourg (126 boulevard Haussmann), Paris, lot 69.

Laurin Guilloux, Buffetaud, Palais Galliera, Paris, 1 December 1972, lot 138

Galerie Melki, Rétrospective Jean Metzinger, Paris, January – February 1976

Mr. and Mrs. Frydman (acquired at the above after 1976)

Sotheby’s, Paris, June 2010, lot 44

Expositions: Galerie Melki, Rétrospective Jean Metzinger, Paris, January – February 1976

Littérature: Birmingham Daily Gazette, Saturday 23 June 1956

Jean Metzinger, 1883-1956, Atelier sur l’herbe, École des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, January 1985, p. 14, reproduced

Joann Moser, Daniel Robbins, Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, 1985, no. 73, p. 67, reproduced

Notes: Sotheby’s writes in their Catalogue Note: “Femme à l’éventail dans un ovale is one of the masterpieces from the brief post-war period during which Metzinger created his last truly Cubist compositions, supported by a new contract with the gallery L’Effort moderne, run by the dealer Léonce Rosemberg [sic]. The artist borrowed from his friend Juan Gris – whom he had visited at length in Beaulieu in 1918 – his celebrated wooden effect as well as the idea of creating a Cubist composition within the classic rounded form of an oval.” (Sotheby’s, Paris, 10 juin 2010, lot 44)

The fact that Metzinger did indeed produced truly Cubist works following the post-war period, and the fact that it was Gris–if anyone–who borrowed from Metzinger, are two of the topics discussed at length in Volume II of the Metzinger Monograph.