Pichet, fruits et tire-bouchon

Inscriptions: Signed (lower left)

Provenance: Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd., London.

Edgardo Acosta Gallery, Beverly Hills.

Private collection (acquired from the above).

Bonhams, New York, 4 November 2015, lot 136.

Bonhams, New York, 13 November 2018, lot 19.

MTA Foundation, Israel

Exhibitions: The Hub of Fine Arts, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Notes: In Pichet, fruits et tire-bouchon Metzinger seeks to simplify and synthesize each element of his composition, all the while using flat primary colors to further emphasize the geometric properties of the painting. He playfully experiments with the repetition of shapes, demonstrating the process of abstraction as the viewer’s eye travels from left to right. The triangular shape of the wine glass, a classic Cubist compositional element, is echoed immediately to its right in the upside-down simplified shape of a pear. The full silhouette of the glass is then inserted in the interior of the pitcher, which in turn sweeps up towards the mouth of the vessel whose circular shape is echoed in the mouth of the wine bottle in the upper left corner. The bottle is in turn positioned immediately behind the wine glass, completing the cycle. The instantly readable form of the table top is repeated at several angles in varying tones of brown and ochre rectangles in the upper half of the canvas, providing a unifying background for the objects in the front of the composition. Thus the artist achieves a harmonious pictorial space where elements echo each other and form a coherent and sophisticated whole. (Excerpt from Bonhams, 4 November 2015, lot notes)