La fenêtre

Inscriptions: Signed (lower center-right)

Provenance: International Galleries, Chicago.

Harry Belafonte, New York (by 1964).

Baruch College, New York (a gift from the above).

Sotheby’s, Parke Bernet, New York, 26 April 1972, lot 53. 

Mr & Mrs F. L. Schoneman (by 1985).

Obelisk Gallery, Boston.

Private collection (acquired from the above on 12 March 1988).

Exhibitions: Pre-Cubist and Cubist Works, 1900-1930, International Galleries, Chicago, 17 April – 10 May 1964, no. 18, pp. 30, 32, reproduced.

Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, 31 August – 13 October 1985; The Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, 10 November – 22 December 1985; The David and Alfred Smart Gallery, University of Chicago, 23 January – 9 March 1986; Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, 29 March – 25 May 1986, catalogue no. 229, p. 120, reproduced.

Notes: Metzinger’s La fenêtre exhibits several features that are characteristic of the artist’s work, not solely between 1924 and 1930, but throughout his entire oeuvre: The use of symmetry as a means of obtaining quasi-equilibrium, and the careful juxtaposition of elements within this underlying armature, are a trademark of the artist. (See the Metzinger monograph, Volume III)

Metzinger writes in 1927: “Les éléments qui le composent, étant d’inégale importance, ne peuvent être saisis par l’esprit dans le même instant; mais aucun d’entre eux ne doit échapper à la vue dès le premier coup d’oeil.” It is the inequality of both color and form (an asymmetry flanked upon a symmetric background) that results in an overall ‘harmony in space rather than in time’. (Jean Metzinger, Notes, Bulletin de L’Effort moderne, February 1927 n. 32)