Le jardin

This work will be included in the forthcoming André Lhote catalogue raisonné being prepared by Dominique Bermann Martin.

André Lhote’s formal identification with Cubism began in 1911 with his participation in the Salon d’Automne along with other innovative young artists such as Robert Delaunay, Jean Metzinger, and Fernand Léger, and was cemented with his inclusion in the Salon de la Section d’Or. The present work, painted in 1916, strongly reflects Lhote’s goal to connect modern art with the great traditions of French painting. An autodidacte, Lhote expresses in his paintings his innate sense of originality and personal creativity. Initially inspired by the past masters including Da Vinci, Ingres and Delacroix, it was during his first visit to Paris in 1907 that he was to encounter his greatest inspiration, Paul Cézanne, whose revolutionary works had just been unveiled to the general public at the Salon d’automne. In 1911 Lhote became an active member of the Section d’Or, and at their 1912 Salon he presented ten works, equalling the contributions of the founding members Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger and Marcel Duchamp.

Contemporary critics, including Guillaume Appolinaire, focused on the residues of classicism still present in Lhote’s work, which they said ruled him out from being classified as a pure cubist – modernism being defined by the wish to create an entirely new aesthetic. Lhote would nevertheless continue to retain elements of representation and classicism in his work, as did other French artists in the movement in contrast to the Spaniards Picasso and Gris, who were committed to scaling the heights of hermetic analytical Cubism. Executed in 1916, Le jardin illustrates the classical decorative quality of Lhote’s own brand of cubism. Around this date, the artist was focusing his research on the importance of local colour and the respective influences which tones could exert in the build-up of recession. Later celebrated also as an art critic and theoretician, Lhote would qualify his own painting as 'ambiant cubism'. The present work undeniably engages the viewer with its enveloping sense of place and atmosphere.