Charged with psychological and emotional expression, Nez Long et Chaise is a seminal example of Dubuffet’s momentous Paris Circus series. The year this work was painted, 1961, marked Dubuffet’s return to Paris after having left in 1955 for a more rural life in the South of France. Nez Long et Chaise bears witness to the experiential shock of returning to the lively French capital after the artist’s pastoral years. Dubuffet’s former focus on the natural world, investigation of textures and soils, was immediately replaced with the onset of the overwhelming urbanity presented by Paris. The intoxicating atmosphere of this new, post-war city had an explosive effect on his work that culminated in the Paris Circus paintings.

The impassioned brushwork of Nez Long et Chaise presents the seated character in a state of frenzy, incapable of rest amidst the perpetual urban commotion. Through this portrayal of the individual, Dubuffet is able to capture the city’s exuberant populous. The vibrancy of cosmopolitan Paris is brought to life in this work; the fleshy pinks of the agitated background swallowing the caricature-like figure, blending civilization into the frenetic environment of oblivion. The earthy tonalities that dominated Dubuffet’s earlier works dissipate in Nez Long et Chaise to welcome a more sumptuous palette in tune with the excitement of the new subject matter, Paris. In Dubuffet’s Parisian landscape the inhabitant becomes the inhabited and Dubuffet’s treatment of the paint in Nez Long et Chaise embodies the angst within the circus that has become Paris.