Focus on Two Nudes and discuss the The 1911 Indépendants.
In the spring of 1911 the artists soon to be label Cubists made sure they were shown together by infiltrating the placement committee. Le Fauconnier's role as secretary of the salon facilitated the goal of hanging their works together. The result created a scandale. Until then, works hung in alphabetical order of the artists names. In Salle 41 were placed the works of Metzinger, Gleizes, Léger, Delaunay, Le Fauconnier and Marie Laurencin (at the request of Guillaume Apollinaire). In room 43 hung works by André Lhote, Roger de La Fresnaye, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Luc-Albert Moreau and André Mare.This exhibition, taking place in Paris at Quai d'Orsay, 21 April through 13 June 1911, involved more than 6,400 paintings. In room 42 was a retrospective exhibition of Henri (Le Douanier) Rousseau, who died 2 September 1910. Articles and reviews were numerous and extensive in sheer words employed; including in Gil Blas, Comoedia, Excelsior, Action, L'Oeuvre, and Cri de Paris. Apollinaire wrote a long review in the 20 April 1911 issue of L'Intransigeant.Henri Le Fauconnier's Abundance, 1910–11 (Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag), partly due to its large size and partly to the treatment of its subject matter caused a sensation. This painting was soon bought by the Dutchman art critic and painter Conrad Kickert (1882-1965), who was secretary of the Contemporary Art Society (Moderne Kunstkring). In 1934 he donated the painting to the Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag.According to Gleizes, the public is outraged by the representation of subject matter as cones, cubes and spheres, resulting in the obscurity of the subject matter. The predominance of sharp geometrical faceting and the fact that a group of artists are all working in similar directions, gives rise to the term 'Cubism'. Although this and similar terms have been used before in artistic circles (usually in relation to the works of Metzinger, Delaunay and Braque), this is the first time the use of the term becomes widespread.Roger Allard, in his review of the 1911 Salon des Indépendants, writes of Metzinger and his Two Nudes:
Last year, Jean Metzinger caused an excessive degree of alarm. In carefully considering the canvas of his that caused the scandal ['Nu à la cheminée'], I found that the most daring possibilities were only barely indicated, and that one ought to be grateful to this poet for certain reserve in applying Mallarmism to painting.
In any case, the poetic, and hence instructive, feature of his art has since become sharper. I confess I am very sensitive to the precious charm that surrounds his two figures of nude women. This canvas exudes a real intimacy, thanks to the integration of the setting into the principal strokes, common in Vuillard, for example. (Roger Allard, 1911)
André Mare Nu à la cheminée Roger de La Fresnaye Gleizes Guillaume Apollinaire Delaunay Henri (Le Douanier) Rousseau Marie Laurencin Cubist Cubism Mallarmism Metzinger Léger Roger Allard André Dunoyer de Segonzac Moderne Kunstkring Jean Metzinger Le Fauconnier Henri Le Fauconnier André Lhote Salon des Indépendants