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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2003.57
People
Jean Dubuffet, French (LeHavre, France 1901 - 1985 Paris, France)
Title
Landscape with Figures
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Paysage avec personnages
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1946
Places
Creation Place: Europe, France
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/143235

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1330, Modern and Contemporary Art, New Images
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
97 x 130 cm (38 3/16 x 51 3/16 in.)
framed: 104.2 x 137.5 x 3.9 cm (41 x 54 1/8 x 1 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: on reverse in black paint on canvas: J. Dubuffet '46

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Mrs. Frances Leventritt, New York, New York, gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2003.

NOTE: Painting was on loan to the Art Museums from April 2002 to the time of the gift.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Frances Leventritt in honor of John Rosenfield
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Accession Year
2003
Object Number
2003.57
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
The painting depicts figures inscribed in a gridded landscape of trees, houses, an automobile, and various ambiguous features as well. The facture consists of a layering of black and green and white paint on a red ground with vigorous scratchings and more subtle additions of paint.
Commentary
This is a remarkably powerful painting from Dubuffet's prolific burst of early work. It demonstrates both his interest in appropriating what he dubbed Art Brut, or "primitive" art, and his deep knowledge of modernist painting and its use of the grid as an organizing pictorial principle. While part of a loose series depicting anonymous figures in a clotted semi-urban landscape under a strip of sky, the picture is remarkable for its vigorous handling and all-over treatment of the surface.

Publication History

  • Max Loreau, ed., Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet, J.-J. Pauvert (Paris, France, 1964), vol. 2, p. 95, no. 143

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 1330 , Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu