Georges de Miré

Roger de la Fresnaye

1910 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

Throughout his career, La Fresnaye demonstrated his great admiration for Paul Cézanne. In this early work, the idea to identify the sitter, Georges de Miré—the artist’s first cousin and friend—at the top of the canvas was inspired by the work of Cézanne. The faceted forms and reduced palette of this full-length portrait also reveal La Fresnaye’s awareness of the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Exhibited at the 1910 Salon d’Automne (the annual exhibition held in Paris in the fall), the painting demonstrated— alongside canvases by Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, and Robert Delaunay—the growing interest in a new kind of painting focused on form rather than on color, as was the case with Henri Matisse and the Fauves.

Artist

Roger de la Fresnaye

Date

1910

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Cummings, 1962