Still Life with Lamp

Inscriptions: Signed (lower right)

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

Possibly: Alph. Bellier, Hôtel Drouot, 9 April 1945, lot 98 (dated 1919)

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lewis Winston, Birmingham, Michigan (by 1957)

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lewis Winston (1960)

Notes: MoMA dates this painting 1916. Bozena Nikiel had dated this work 1918 with some hesitancy. However, taking into account the date of 1915 on the study for this work, entitled Nature morte à la guitare et à la pipe (AM-15-004), the date of 1915-16 has been given here. Metzinger evidently returned to the style of painting by 1917-19, elaborating on the process of image-making set out in late-1915 and early 1916. There also remains the possibility that Metzinger reworked this 1915-16 canvas at a later date, thus giving the impression it was complete in 1918 or 1919. For example, the areas filled in with the dot-pattern, and the faux woodgrain, appear to have been added later. Neither are present in the 1915 sketch.

The lamp itself is similar to the type represented in another 1916 work titled Nature morte au guéridon (La lampe bleue) (AM-16-013).

For a more extensive analysis on dating, refer to the Metzinger monograph, Volume II.