How does The Harbor elucidate its Salon des Indépendants, 1912?
At the 1912 Salon des Indépendants Jean Metzinger exhibited Le Port (The Harbor) and La Femme au Cheval (Woman with a horse) — Albert Gleizes exhibited his monumental  Les Baigneuses (The Bathers) (no. 1347) — Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 was listed in the catalogue (n. 1001) but was supposedly withdrawn — Roger de La Fresnaye exhibited Artillerie (no. 1235) — Robert Delaunay showed his immense Ville de Paris (no. 868) — Fernand Léger showed La Noce — Henri Le Fauconnier, Le Chasseur (The Huntsman) — and the newcomer Juan Gris exhibiting in a major Salon for the first time, showed his Portrait of Picasso.The art critic Olivier-Hourcade writes of this exhibition in 1912 and its relation to the creation of a new French school: Metzinger with his Port, Delaunay with Paris, Gleizes with his Baigneuses, are close to this real and magnificent result, this victory comes from several centuries: the creation of a school of painting, 'French' and absolutely independent.Roger Allard's reviewed the 1912 Salon des Indépendants in the March–April 1912 issue of La Revue de France et des Pays, noting Metzinger's 'refined choice of colors' and the 'precious rarity' of the painting's 'matière'. André Salmon too, in his review, noted Metzinger's 'refined use of color' in La Femme au Cheval and praised its 'French grace', while noting Metzinger 'illuminated a cubist figure with the virtues of a smile'.These early researches into Cubism were, in the words of Albert Gleizes, 'neither an alchemy nor a system. They were just the normal evolution of an art that was mobile like life itself.'
André Salmon Jean Metzinger La Femme au Cheval (Woman with a horse) Juan Gris Robert Delaunay Fernand Léger Roger Allard La Femme au Cheval Cubism Henri Le Fauconnier Marcel Duchamp Roger de La Fresnaye Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 Albert Gleizes Les Baigneuses (The Bathers) Salon des Indépendants