La Roulette

Inscriptions: Signed (lower center-right)

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

R. S. Johnson, Chicago (until 1972)

Kmart Art Collection (acquired from the above by 1972)

Schiller & Bodo, New York

Exhibitions: Salon des Indépendants, Paris, 1928, no. 2939 (titled La roulette)

Literature: Bulletin de L’Effort Moderne, January 1927, No. 31, reproduced (titled La roulette)

Joann Moser, Daniel Robbins, Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1985, no. 218, p. 116, reproduced.

Notes: A smaller version of this work is located at the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art. It was exhibited at the Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1985-86 exhibitions (no. 217, p. 116, color plate reproduced p. 32), measuring 38.1 x 57.9 cm.

An important change is noticeable in La Roulette. While the nature of his influences may be disputed, Metzinger’s highly altered form of Cubism from 1923 to 1930 developed in parallel with the ‘mechanical world’ of Fernand Léger. Yet throughout these years Metzinger continued to express his own marked artistic individuality. These firmly constructed pictures are brightly colored and visually metaphoric, consisting of urban and still-life subject-matter, with clear references to science and technology