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Lot Essay
Richard Riss and Jean Louis Delaunay have confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
Painted in 1912, Les Trois Graces is an exciting sister-work to Delaunay's celebrated masterpiece, La Ville de Paris in Paris' Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. This picture dates from a great vintage year at the vibrant dawn of Modernism, and bursts with the same energy that was to fuel Futurism, Rayonnism and Suprematism. It is filled with the energy of the modern world, even when dealing with a classical theme.
Where La Ville de Paris featured the Graces as a central component of a wide spread that combined a medley of the artist's themes, including buildings, the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, here Delaunay presents us with the Graces themselves. This is, as the title would suggest, a painting in which the extreme elegance of the theme is translated through a modern visual idiom to create an avant-garde painting that is filled with a timeless and poetic quality.
These features resulted in high praise for La Ville de Paris from the artist's friend and advocate, Guillaume Apollinaire. Writing in early 1912, Apollinaire lauded the painter, stating that Delaunay had brought about the rebirth of great art, 'This picture marks the arrival of a conception of art that has been lost perhaps since the great Italian painters... This is a painting, a true painting, and it is a long time since we have seen any' (Apollinaire, quoted in exh. cat., Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), Paris, 1976, p. 22).
Many critics have stated that La Ville de Paris was in fact a combination of several themes that Delaunay had been exploring in the years leading to its execution, and this is certainly backed up in the example of Les Trois Graces. This was a theme that he had tackled as early as 1909, basing his image on a fresco of the same subject from Pompeii. Already in that early, seemingly unfinished sketch, we see a prelude to the Cubist treatment with which he would later treat the subject. A small number of other treatments of this subject exist, but most appear as sketches and studies, in opposition to the present work's highly finished state. The preeminence of the Graces in this picture is emphasized by its elegant vertical composition. Les Trois Graces is an autonomous painting, not a preparatory work.
Les Trois Graces dates from an exciting period in which Delaunay was consolidating his position as one of the greatest artists of the day, and one of the most important proponents of Cubism, albeit his own unique take on it. The appearance of these fractured, interlinking planes is reminiscent of Picasso's pictures of the same time. However, Delaunay's Cubism retains a visual accessibility that many of the other artists had forfeited. At the same time, he was strict in the analysis that leads logically to his fractured, multi-faceted depiction of the Graces. This contrasting combination prompted Apollinaire to write of Delaunay's art: 'Intellectual in the extreme, it is by consequence realistic in the extreme and its purity even exerts that marvellous plastic Trinity without which there is no modern art' (Apollinaire, quoted in R. Delaunay, Du Cubisme à l'art abstrait, P. Francastel (ed.), Paris, 1957, p. 162).
This balance between intellectualism and realism rested on the focus on light and rhythm in Delaunay's painting. Just as light is integral to sight, so Delaunay believed that it, rather than the oils themselves, created art. This interest in the role of light in art results in the sense of refraction created by the shimmering planes with which Les Trois Graces have been constructed. The image has been harnessed using modern means that are infused with light, colour and poetry, the same qualities that would lead to the development of Delaunay's abstract art only just after this picture was executed. Indeed, the light of Les Trois Graces reveals these imminent developments already under way, the rhythmic forms and fields that make up the mirage-like image of the Graces clearly breaking up his figuration, turning towards outright abstraction. Apollinaire would come to dub this later work Orphism, after Orpheus (and particularly Le Cortège d'Orphée upon which the poet was working at the time). Already in Les Trois Graces we see the lyricism that would attract his interest.
Delaunay's Orphist or Simultaneous or Pure Painting, which was about to burst into existence, took to an extreme Delaunay's interest in light, and also an interest in rhythm. This interest of rhythm as captured pictorially had a great currency amongst the avant garde artists of several movements during this period, reflecting artists' interests in adapting art to truly reflect the new world of science and technology in which they lived. This resulted in extreme developments of visual rhythm such as Orphism or Suprematism, as well as more figurative techniques such as Futurism. Delaunay's Orphism would only truly come to the fore shortly after Les Trios Graces was painted, but the manner in which the women have been painted is reminiscent of the fractured forms designed to capture movement evident in the painting of artists such as Villon or the Italian Futurists, for instance Severini. Les Trois Graces shows Delaunay's fascination with, and skill in using, visual rhythms to create an absorbing and lyrical tableau with the same musicality that would be the focus of his imminent Orphic paintings. In an article already discussing Orphism that was written by Delaunay just after the painting of Les Trois Graces, he made a statement that is clearly equally applicable to this painting: 'Art, like Nature, is rhythmic, which is to say Eternal' (R. Delaunay, op.cit., P. Francastel (ed.), 1957, p. 148).
During this critical period of his career, Delaunay was extremely interested in the interplay between the Classical and the Modern. This is openly presented in the juxtaposition of modern Paris and the Graces in La Ville de Paris. In Les Trois Graces, it is the combination of the classical theme and the cutting-edge rendering that heightens the tension between motif and technique. This interest in resuscitating the Classical for a new age was one which concerned Delaunay intensely. Discussing his La Ville de Paris, he wrote: 'Ancient grace reappears: Pompeii! But drowned in a desire for new composition' (Delaunay, op.cit., ed. Francastel, 1957, p. 62).
By taking these ancient embodiments of grace, Delaunay creates a painting that displays his belief that Art 'can become the living harmony of Nature' (Delaunay, op.cit., ed. Francastel, 1957, p. 148). Interestingly, this quotation was translated from French to German by Delaunay's friend Paul Klee, to be included in the publication Der Sturm in 1913. This shows on the one hand the intense interest that was taken, on an international scale, in the art of Delaunay, and in his radical ideas. The Blue Rider group especially had espoused much of his thinking, finding in him a soul-brother. The article in Der Sturm was published at roughly the same time as the exhibition of Les Trois Graces, among other paintings, at the Galerie Der Sturm that year. This reflects Delaunay's influence and the wide base of his following, as well as reflecting the historical importance of the painting itself.
Painted in 1912, Les Trois Graces is an exciting sister-work to Delaunay's celebrated masterpiece, La Ville de Paris in Paris' Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. This picture dates from a great vintage year at the vibrant dawn of Modernism, and bursts with the same energy that was to fuel Futurism, Rayonnism and Suprematism. It is filled with the energy of the modern world, even when dealing with a classical theme.
Where La Ville de Paris featured the Graces as a central component of a wide spread that combined a medley of the artist's themes, including buildings, the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, here Delaunay presents us with the Graces themselves. This is, as the title would suggest, a painting in which the extreme elegance of the theme is translated through a modern visual idiom to create an avant-garde painting that is filled with a timeless and poetic quality.
These features resulted in high praise for La Ville de Paris from the artist's friend and advocate, Guillaume Apollinaire. Writing in early 1912, Apollinaire lauded the painter, stating that Delaunay had brought about the rebirth of great art, 'This picture marks the arrival of a conception of art that has been lost perhaps since the great Italian painters... This is a painting, a true painting, and it is a long time since we have seen any' (Apollinaire, quoted in exh. cat., Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), Paris, 1976, p. 22).
Many critics have stated that La Ville de Paris was in fact a combination of several themes that Delaunay had been exploring in the years leading to its execution, and this is certainly backed up in the example of Les Trois Graces. This was a theme that he had tackled as early as 1909, basing his image on a fresco of the same subject from Pompeii. Already in that early, seemingly unfinished sketch, we see a prelude to the Cubist treatment with which he would later treat the subject. A small number of other treatments of this subject exist, but most appear as sketches and studies, in opposition to the present work's highly finished state. The preeminence of the Graces in this picture is emphasized by its elegant vertical composition. Les Trois Graces is an autonomous painting, not a preparatory work.
Les Trois Graces dates from an exciting period in which Delaunay was consolidating his position as one of the greatest artists of the day, and one of the most important proponents of Cubism, albeit his own unique take on it. The appearance of these fractured, interlinking planes is reminiscent of Picasso's pictures of the same time. However, Delaunay's Cubism retains a visual accessibility that many of the other artists had forfeited. At the same time, he was strict in the analysis that leads logically to his fractured, multi-faceted depiction of the Graces. This contrasting combination prompted Apollinaire to write of Delaunay's art: 'Intellectual in the extreme, it is by consequence realistic in the extreme and its purity even exerts that marvellous plastic Trinity without which there is no modern art' (Apollinaire, quoted in R. Delaunay, Du Cubisme à l'art abstrait, P. Francastel (ed.), Paris, 1957, p. 162).
This balance between intellectualism and realism rested on the focus on light and rhythm in Delaunay's painting. Just as light is integral to sight, so Delaunay believed that it, rather than the oils themselves, created art. This interest in the role of light in art results in the sense of refraction created by the shimmering planes with which Les Trois Graces have been constructed. The image has been harnessed using modern means that are infused with light, colour and poetry, the same qualities that would lead to the development of Delaunay's abstract art only just after this picture was executed. Indeed, the light of Les Trois Graces reveals these imminent developments already under way, the rhythmic forms and fields that make up the mirage-like image of the Graces clearly breaking up his figuration, turning towards outright abstraction. Apollinaire would come to dub this later work Orphism, after Orpheus (and particularly Le Cortège d'Orphée upon which the poet was working at the time). Already in Les Trois Graces we see the lyricism that would attract his interest.
Delaunay's Orphist or Simultaneous or Pure Painting, which was about to burst into existence, took to an extreme Delaunay's interest in light, and also an interest in rhythm. This interest of rhythm as captured pictorially had a great currency amongst the avant garde artists of several movements during this period, reflecting artists' interests in adapting art to truly reflect the new world of science and technology in which they lived. This resulted in extreme developments of visual rhythm such as Orphism or Suprematism, as well as more figurative techniques such as Futurism. Delaunay's Orphism would only truly come to the fore shortly after Les Trios Graces was painted, but the manner in which the women have been painted is reminiscent of the fractured forms designed to capture movement evident in the painting of artists such as Villon or the Italian Futurists, for instance Severini. Les Trois Graces shows Delaunay's fascination with, and skill in using, visual rhythms to create an absorbing and lyrical tableau with the same musicality that would be the focus of his imminent Orphic paintings. In an article already discussing Orphism that was written by Delaunay just after the painting of Les Trois Graces, he made a statement that is clearly equally applicable to this painting: 'Art, like Nature, is rhythmic, which is to say Eternal' (R. Delaunay, op.cit., P. Francastel (ed.), 1957, p. 148).
During this critical period of his career, Delaunay was extremely interested in the interplay between the Classical and the Modern. This is openly presented in the juxtaposition of modern Paris and the Graces in La Ville de Paris. In Les Trois Graces, it is the combination of the classical theme and the cutting-edge rendering that heightens the tension between motif and technique. This interest in resuscitating the Classical for a new age was one which concerned Delaunay intensely. Discussing his La Ville de Paris, he wrote: 'Ancient grace reappears: Pompeii! But drowned in a desire for new composition' (Delaunay, op.cit., ed. Francastel, 1957, p. 62).
By taking these ancient embodiments of grace, Delaunay creates a painting that displays his belief that Art 'can become the living harmony of Nature' (Delaunay, op.cit., ed. Francastel, 1957, p. 148). Interestingly, this quotation was translated from French to German by Delaunay's friend Paul Klee, to be included in the publication Der Sturm in 1913. This shows on the one hand the intense interest that was taken, on an international scale, in the art of Delaunay, and in his radical ideas. The Blue Rider group especially had espoused much of his thinking, finding in him a soul-brother. The article in Der Sturm was published at roughly the same time as the exhibition of Les Trois Graces, among other paintings, at the Galerie Der Sturm that year. This reflects Delaunay's influence and the wide base of his following, as well as reflecting the historical importance of the painting itself.