Currently not on view
Still Life with Matches (Le Pyrogène Quinquina),
1912
Louis C. Marcoussis, French, 1878–1941
y1980-3
Born Louis Casimir Ladislas Markus in Warsaw, Louis Marcoussis traveled to Paris to study art in 1903, a time when other foreigners who helped forge modern art were beginning to seek out this artistic capital. After meeting Apollinaire, Braque, and Picasso in 1910, he began to paint in a Cubist style and never strayed far from it during the rest of his career. This painting exemplifies his interpretation of Cubism at a time when that style was on the cutting edge of the avant-garde, and still life the preferred subject matter. The use of brand names, as in the ceramic match holder and striker (pyrogène) that advertises the aperitif Quinquina, was valued by this group of artists as symbolic of modern life.
Information
Title
Still Life with Matches (Le Pyrogène Quinquina)
Dates
1912
Maker
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
24.1 x 33.1 cm (9 1/2 x 13 1/16 in.)
frame: 45 x 54 x 6 cm (17 11/16 x 21 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Alfred H. Barr Jr., Class of 1922, and Mrs. Barr
Object Number
y1980-3
Place Made
Europe, France
Signatures
Signed, lower left: Marcoussis 1912
Culture
Type
Subject
Galerie Percier; Museum of Modern Art, NY (Lafranchis); 1980 gift of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., class of 1922 and Mrs. Barr.
- Grand Palais, Trente ans d'art indépendant, 1884-1914: catalogue: exposition retrospective des oeuvres des membres inscrits au cours des trente premières, (Paris: Société des artistes independants, 1926).
- Albert Gleizes, Kubismus, (München: A. Langen, 1928). , pl. 26
- E. Tériade, "Documentaire sur la jeune peinture: III: conséquences du cubisme", Cahiers d'art 5, no. 1 (1930): p. 17-27., p. 19
- A. H. Barr, Jr., Dorothy C. Miller and Ernestine M. Fantl, Cubism and abstract art, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936)., no. 162; p. 216
- Section d'or: an exhibition, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1968).
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1980", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 40, no. 1 (1981): p. 14-31., p. 28
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 141 (illus.)
