Arriving to Paris from Bordeaux in 1906, the young André Lhote played witness to the seminal retrospective exhibitions of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne, prominently displayed in the French capital. The presentation of the full artistic achievement of these two great pioneers of the modern age, especially Cézanne, provided a source model for Lhote’s stylistic development, just as it did for fellow Cubist artists Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris (see fig. 1). The exposure to these models helped to develop Lhote’s works from a largely Fauvist style to one in which geometric patterns were used to distill forms from the natural world. Following his first solo exhibition at Galerie Druet in 1910, Lhote showed works to the 1911 Salon des Indépendants in the room adjoining the famed Salle 41, where Cubism made its first public appearance. While Lhote would continue to exhibit with Cubist artists through 1914—and he is often considered a member of the movement based on his theoretical conceptions of form—he transcends the rigid constraints of traditional Cubism in order to develop a highly theoretical and distinctive style according to his own subjective vision.
In Nature morte dans le jardin Lhote has maintained his unique pictorial style of Cubism, putting forward his triumphant, spontaneous vision that incorporates his early interest in Fauve coloration with Cubist ideas of form—the precise, unmodulated color within his palette is painted with a superb sensitivity while the bold play of lines and superimpositions, a complex system of interacting planes and geometricized figurative elements, provide an inventiveness to the formal construct. Bursting with energy, this work depicts what could in reality have been a mundane garden scene, reworked through Cubist codes to create to a lively, dynamic composition.
Just a year after Nature morte dans le jardin was painted a fascinating illustration of the work with accompanying text by André Lhote was published in the Swedish art magazine Flamman. Georg Pauli, a student of Lhote, translated the text into his native tongue (see fig. 2 and interactive image below). This visual analysis which refers to a numbered diagram of the painting takes the reader from the upper left of the composition. Beginning with the square of light blue sky, through a bunch of grapes and a pair of pears, the “impression plastique” of the branches at center, Lhote describes each aspect of the painting in detail—including the different faces of the flower and the need for the viewer’s eye to see the scene in its entirety. Georg Pauli was not only an admirer of Lhote’s work, he was also enrolled at Lhote’s painting school in Paris and was a collector of the artist’s work. Nature morte dans le jardin formed a part of Pauli’s collection until 1942 along with the monumental Port de Bordeaux of 1911, sold at Sotheby's in 2015 for $1,210,000 (see fig. 3).
In 1917 André Lhote wrote an illustrated guide to the present work. Click below to explore his explanations of each numbered facet of the composition.
- 1. At the top the contours of a few wine leaves
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modeled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 4 & 5. The pear tree: fruit and branches, not presented in a naturalistic manner, but in line with the plastic impression—impression plastique—that is left on the eye's retina, as ones gaze seeks to comprehend the motif in its entirety. This new situation is determined by the general rhythm of the image (as are all of its elements)
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 3. Further: a bunch of grapes
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 2. Then a square = the sky in light grey
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 6. The rectangle to the upper right: Eucalyptus.
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 7. Underneath: a piece of wallpaper. Why? Fantasy/imagination! motivated by the impression: a garden can sometimes resemble an overly ornate tapestry.
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 9. The trunk of the pear tree in the center.
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 8. At the same height to the left: an umbel , one facing the viewer and one in profile, so one can see the flower's construction from two different angles. The leaves are rendered with light contours in local color.
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 10. In between the trunk and the newly sprouted leaves, a dark surface, painted with parallel strokes, foliage in so-called fusain. The tree's appearance reveals this technique.
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 12. Finally: on the step of the stairs, at the bottom: a still life, a kettle.
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 11. Just underneath we see a group of daisies—in tree levels: in profile, en-face, and leaves.—White flowers on a white background take shape only through the oil paint's lighter or heavier consistency and the shadows which are cast by its stalks (similar circumstances as with the umbels).
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 14. A pair of clogs (en-face and seen from a three-quarter view).
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 13. A bucket
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 15. A saucepan
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 16. A couple of square terracotta tiles
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 17. Near the frame on the right, the silhouette of a climber
- 18. A small, dense hedge
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 20. As well as pyramidal flowers, mauve—with uniformly-rendered leaves. An exhaustive presentation of The Garden.
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."
- 19. And a light surface of small white and black dots
"The objects are represented by their most characteristic aspects and different techniques have been used: small dots of different colors, impasto, flat surfaces—in local color—nuances, modelled here and contoured there, etc. Each procedure is determined by the objects' materiality or their other traits. The image's simplified geometry aims to give the eye a feeling of calmness and security. One has to have the feeling that the objects are in their right place. This solemnity is interrupted by amusing and telling details, which from time to time possess illusory genuineness. In all this variety, as well as its treatment, the details must form a whole."