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Jacques Villon

Groupe de Puteaux, Section d'Or, cubism

  • Autoportrait ou Homme à la Blouse
  • Autoportrait ou Homme à la Blouse
  • Autoportrait ou Homme à la Blouse
  • Autoportrait ou Homme à la Blouse

Jacques Villon

(Damville, 1875 - Puteaux, 1963)

Autoportrait ou Homme à la Blouse, 1949

Oil on canvas
Signed lower right Jacques Villon 
Countersigned, dated and annotated on verso 
Homme à la blouse / Jacques Villon / 49
41 x 27 cm

Provenance :
- Galerie Louis Carré, Paris
- Olga Carré, Paris
- Mr. and Mrs. Robert Schmit Collection, Paris
- Private collection (by descent from Robert Schmit) 

Exhibitions :
- Expositon Jacques Villon, Peintures, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, April 3-30, 1955, no. 38, reproduced in catalog pl. XX
- Les 3 Duchamp: Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918), Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), Galerie Tokoro, Tokyo, 1984, reproduced in catalogue no. 7, p. 39
- Paris, Jacques Villon 1875-1963, Peintre Dessinateur, Rétrospective, Peintre-Dessinateur, Galerie Schmit, Paris, 2004, reproduced in the catalog (under the title Autoportrait à la blouse) p. 81

Literature :    
- Jacques Villon ou la Constance by Jacques Lassaigne, in Revue de la Pensée Française, n° 11, New York-Montreal, November 1950, reproduced p. 50
- L'œuvre gravé de Jacques Villon, exhibition catalogue, Musée Rath, Geneva, 1955, reproduced p. 14 (under the title Autoportrait) 
- Jacques Villon, in Les Cahiers d'Art-Documents, n° 15, Geneva, August 1955, reproduced p. 14 (under the title Autoportrait
- Jacques Villon, né Gaston Duchamp (1875-1963) by Germain Viatte, catalogue of the Musée d'Angers exhibition, Editions Expressions Contemporaines, 2011, the painting reproduced on completion in the painter's studio in Puteaux p. 73 (photograph by Gjon Mili for LIFE magazine in 1949) 
- This work will be reproduced in the catalogue raisonné of catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint de Jacques Villon currently being prepared by Patrick Bongers, director of Galerie Louis Carré, Paris.

 

Certificate of authenticity from Mr. Patrick Bongers, dated 30/11/2021

 

Our Autoportrait, soberly entitled by Villon “Homme à la blouse”, was painted in 1949. At the age of 74, the artist depicts himself in a relatively classical posture, reminiscent of his 1928 etching of Van Gogh's Le Paysan. In our painting, the artist is shown from the front, dressed simply in his painter's smock and hat. His hands are particularly prominent, as they are the indispensable tools of his artistic creation. Everything is allusive, with few details. In the background, to the right of the composition, we can make out the silhouette of Maggy, a sculpture by Duchamp-Villon, a plaster print of which already appears in the photographic portrait of Jacques Villon taken in 1934 by Florence Henri (1893-1982). Jacques Villon was a great admirer and collector of the works of his brother, the sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918). In his studio in Puteaux, Villon was surrounded by sculptures by Duchamp-Villon, which served as subjects for several of his paintings. 

Jacques VILLON
Le Paysan, inspired by Van Gogh, 1928 
Etching on paper

Raymond DUCHAMP-VILLON
Maggy, 1912-1948 
Bronze

Gjon MILI (1904-1984)    
Jacques Villon in the studio at Puteaux, 1949
Photography for LIFE magazine, 1949

Jacques VILLON                                
Autoportrait, 1949                                 
Oin on canvas, 100 x 73 cm    
Coll. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

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