Sale: Champin, Lombrail & Gaultier, Hôtel Enghien, Paris, May 27, 1984, lot 81
Sale: Sotheby's, London, April 1, 1987, lot 168
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1987, lot 390bis
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Galerie Hessel, Exposition d'oeuvres récentes et anciennes de Jean Metzinger, 1943, no. 10 

Good condition. Paper laid down on canvas. Taped at edges. Some cracking and lifting along bottom edge; small nail-head sized loss in the upper right corner and 2 small nail-head sized loss in upper left quadrants. 1-inch scratch in lower center. A few small scattered dots in background and 2 larger spots in her left hand and left arm.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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.

Jean Metzinger compared his mosaic-like Divisionist brushstroke technique to literature of the Symbolist writers of two decades earlier, "I ask of divided brushwork not the objective rendering of light, but iridescences and certain aspects of color still foreign to painting. I make a kind of chromatic versification and for syllables I use strokes which, variable in quantity, cannot differ in dimension without modifying the rhythm of a pictorial phraseology destined to translate the diverse emotions aroused by nature." An interpretation of this statement was made by Robert Herbert: "What Metzinger meant is that each little tile of pigment has two lives: it exists as a plane where mere size and direction are fundamental to the rhythm of the painting and, secondly, it also has color which can vary independently of size and placement" (Statement quoted by Georges Desvallières in La Grande Revue, vol. 124, 1907, and quoted in Robert Herbert, Neo-Impressionism (New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1968), 221. From Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, Joann Moser, 1985, University of Iowa Mus🍎eum of Art, Iowa City, J. Paul Getty Trust, University of Washington Press, pp. 34-35). 

In 1905, the year Femme Nue au chignon assise was painted, the 23-year-old Metzinger moved to Paris, where he encountered and assimilated the styles of Seurat and Cézanne, applying his intellect and creative energies to the Divisionist Movement.  Femme Nue au chignon assise, so🦩 clearly the product of Metzinger's studies du⛦ring this period, reveals another perspective on an artist frequently associated with Cubism.

"Metzinger had been very close to Robert Delaunay, the two having painted each other's portraits in 1906. They had even been linked together in their special variety of Divisionism by the critic Louis Chassevent, who set them apart from other Fauves and Neo-Impressionists at the 1906 Salon des Indépendants, remarking that 'M. Robert Delaunay pushes his love of relief up to the point of fluctuation,' and that 'M. Metzinger is a mosaicist like Signac, but puts more precision in the cut of his cubes of color, which appear to have been fabricated by machine' " (Daniel Robbins, "Jean Metzinger: At the Center of Cubism", 1985, Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, University of Iowa Muse🔯um of Art, pp. 10-11). 

Metzinger deploys Divisionist technique in Femme Nue au chignon assise but the flattened surfaces and protruding geometry already point towards his later Cubist endeavors.  As S. E. Johnson observed of Metzinger, he "can only class that painter, in spite of his youth, as being already one of the leading artistic personalities in that period directly preceding Cubism... In an attempt to understand the importance of Jean Metzinger in Modern Art, we could limit ourselves to three considerations. Firstly, there is the often overlooked importance of Metzinger's Divisionist Period of 1900-1908. Secondly, there is the role of Metzinger in the founding of the Cubist School. Thirdly, there is the consideration of Metzinger's whole Cubist Period from 1909 to 1930. In taking into account these various factors, we can understand why Metzinger must be included among that small group of artists who have taken a part in the shaping of Art History in the first half of the Twentieth Century" (S. E. Johnson, Metzinger Pre-Cubist and Cubist Works 1900-1930, exhibition catalogue, 🔯International Galleries, Chicago, 1964,&🎃nbsp;pp. 3-10).