Henri Laurens

Executed on cream wove paper laid down on panel (possibly by the artist). The panel is sound exept for two small craquelures running horizontally from the center of the right edge. There are four artist's pinholes in the corners. There are two thin scratches (1 cm) and a 1cm faint rubbing mark in the lower right quadrant. Apart from some minor media marks and time staining, this work is in good original condition.
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signed 'H. Laurens' and dated '18' (lower right on panel), gouache, ink and pencil on paper laid down on panel. Executed in 1918.

 

Les œuvres sur papier d'Henri Laurens, réalisées entre 1916 et 1918, procèdent de la même inspiration que les sculptures de l'artiste, lui permettant de renouveler les thèmes cubistes qui lui sont chers : têtes d'homme ou femme de profil, bouteilles, instruments de musique, verres, compotiers, dominos, lettres incorporées constellent ses dessins que Kahnweiler qualifient élogieusement de "fine fleur du Cubisme".  

La parenté stylistique des œuvres d'Henri Laurens avec celles de Georges Braque et Pablo Picasso n'est plus à démontrer (fig. 2). Laurens, voisin de Braque depuis son installation à Montmartre en 1911, fait grâce à ce dernier la rencontre des compagnons et visiteurs du Bateau-Lavoir tels que Picasso, Reverdy, Jacob, Gris, Derain, Modigliani, Matisse, Freundlich...  Une profonde amitié unit dès lors le jeune sculpteur aux deux fondateurs du cubisme et transforme radicalement sa vision artistique.  

Cette nature morte aux formes voluptueuses est une élégante variation de la série des instruments de musique réalisée par l'artiste. Telle une femme aux courbes généreuses, une guitare nous apparait de manière frontale, réduite à sa plus simple expression. Comme le souligne Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, "Dans les plus belles constructions [réalisées entre 1916 et 1918], il y a [...] contamination (consciente ou non, de la part de l'artiste ?) entre la figure et la nature morte, entre la forme féminine et la bouteille pareillement élancée, en forme elle aussi de colonne. A ces déplacements troublants, à cette confusion toujours possible, est liée pour une bonne part la fascination qu'exercent ces œuvres par ailleurs si précisément construites, si subtiles et si riches d'implications formelles ou sémantiques" (cité in. Henri Laurens, constructions et papiers collés 1915-1919, catalogue d'exposition, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1985, p. 14).

 

The drawings that Henri Laurens completed between 1916 and 1918 stemmed from the same inspiration as the artist's sculptures and allowed him to redevelop the Cubist motifs that were so dear to him.  The heads of men and women seen in profile, bottles, musical instruments, glasses, fruit bowls, dominos and letters constellate his drawings, praised by Kahnweiler as "the fine blossoming of cubism".

The relationship between Laurens' works and those of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso is undeniable (fig 2). Braque became Laurens' neighbour after his move to Montmartre in 1911, and it was thanks to him that Laurens got to know the collaborators and visitors of the Bateau-Lavoir such as Picasso, Reverdy, Jacob, Gris, Derain, Modigliani, Matisse and Freundlich.  Moreover, a deep and enduring friendship developed between the young sculptor and the two founders of cubism, which would radically transform his artistic vision.

This still life with its voluptuous shapes is an elegant example of the artist's musical instrument series.  A guitar is depicted face-on, like a curvaceous woman, reduced to its simplest expression.  As Isabelle Monod-Fontaine highlights "In the most beautiful constructions [executed between 1916 and 1918], there seems to be a sort of contamination (whether it is intended or not is unclear), between the figure and the still life, between the female form and the similarly slender bottle, which is also shaped like a column.  This disturbing shifting, this ever possible confusion, is for the most part what makes us so fascinated by these works which are otherwise so precisely constructed, so subtle and so rich in formal or semantic implications." (quotation taken from Henri Laurens, constructions et papiers collés 1915-1919, exhibition catalogue, Centre George Pompidou, 1985, p.14).