André Lhote

Galerie Urban, Paris
Galería Rincón de Arte, Caracas
Acquired by the present owners in 1978

Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes, Obras cubistas y "collages", 1966, no. 2, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Caracas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Colección Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, 1974, no. 60
Austin, The Archer M. Huntington Gallery, The University of Texas, 1976, n.n.
Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes, Cubismo y tendencias afines en la colección del Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, 1984, no. 25

Painted on paper laid down on canvas. Sheet is visible in a few small areas on main figure's abdomen and appears time darkened. A few scattered creases and small tears mostly around egdges have been addressed by laying down process. Visible repair at base of ship's rear mast. Visible repaired tears above center of left edge, at left side of upper edge by figure's hand, and one tear extending vertically from bottom edge at left. Repairs are visible to naked eye. Under UV light: no additional inpainting is apparent. Work is in good condition.
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Painted in 1910, Deux femmes allongées exemplifies the intersection of the artist's involvement with Fauvism and his transition to the coming Cubist revolution. The vibrant palette of the Fauvists imbues the two nudes with green and orange tones that recall the figural coloration of Kees van Dongen, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.  This sensational use of color embodies the Fauvist doctrine. 

These bold colors meet with a geometric deconstruction of form that presages the Cubist idiom which would consume the artist in the subsequent decades. Though Lhote chose to join forces with the Cubists around 1910, he remained an "individual Cubist" following in the same vein as Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger in developing a highly theoretical and distinctive Cubism (Paola Gribaudo, Lhote et les individualistes du cubisme, Petit Palais, Genève). The present work, painted in 1910, exemplifies this rigorous autonomy from artistic schools. The rectangular format expresses the quintessence of Lhote's research: the flat aspect of the composition, geometric figurative elements spaced according to height and not depth, harmonious rhythm, the creation of an "architecture integral to the painting" (Jacques Rivière, (quoted in André Lhote (exhibition catalogue), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, 2007, p. 37). The artist here transcends the rigid constraints of traditional Cubism in order to put forward his jubilant, spontaneous vision: the audacious play of lines and superimpositions, the softness of the palette and the formal inventiveness defy any pre-ordained formula.