Edouard Acosta Gallery, New York
Sold: Sotheby's, New York, February 11, 1987, lot 109
Private Collection, Paris

Original canvas. Some minor craquelure in the gray pigment in the background at upper center, in the green vegetable at left in the bowl, and in the light burgundy of the bowl at center and a few other areas. These areas are stable. Under UV light, there are scattered spots of inpainting around all four edges to address frame abrasion. Four nail-head size dots of inpainting in the kettle. 5-10 scattered dots of inpainting in the darker grey pigments at lower center. A few areas fluoresce in the red at lower right but appear to be original.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Influenced by Picasso and Braque, the Duchamp-Villon brothers founded a group of modern painters called "La Section d'Or" (The Golden Section), to which Metzinger quickly became attached. As the name implies, the group relied on geometrical calculations to rectify the representational problems associated with Cubism. Juan Gris was an occasional visitor to the group, and many artists including Léger and Picabia exhibited in the 1912 inaugural exhibition.

John Golding writes, "...Metzinger has learned from Picasso how to reconcile three-dimensional form with the picture plane, by placing the subject in shallow depth and fusing it with its surroundings, but there is no real interest in analysing solid forms. In his early analytical Cubism Picasso distended and distorted form, seeking to convey a sense of solidity and to synthesize as much information as possible into a single image. Metzinger, on the other hand, elongates his figures in a mannerist fashion, denying their sculptural solidity. His vision is still fundamentally naturalistic, and he views his subject from the single, static point of traditional painting" (John Golding, Cubism: A History and an Anlaysis, 1907-1914, London, 1959, p. 147).

Fig. 1 Fernand Leger, Le compotier rouge - Compotier de poires,  1925, private collection