Albert Gleizes (French, 1881–1953). *L'Homme au hamac (Man in a Hammock)*, 1913. Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 61 1/4 inches (130.2 x 155.6 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; General Purchase Funds, 1957 (1957:2). © Estate of Albert Gleizes / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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Albert Gleizes

French, 1881-1953

L'Homme au hamac (Man in a Hammock), 1913

oil on canvas

support: 51 1/4 x 61 1/4 inches (130.18 x 155.58 cm); framed: 56 x 65 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches (142.24 x 167.005 x 6.985 cm)

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

General Purchase Funds, 1957

1957:2

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Inscriptions

object text / lower center, on book cover / A. MERCEREAU / PAROLES / devant / LA VIE

signature, undated; inscription / reverse, upper left / A Gleizes / L'Homme au hamac

signature, dated / lower left / Alb Gleizes / 13

Provenance

the artist;
J. Metzinger, Paris;
Mme. Russo, Paris;
Sidney Janis Gallery, NY;
sold to the Albright Art Gallery, February 22, 1957

Class

Paintings

Work Type

Oil painting

Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms

Unlike Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, who worked on a relatively small scale during the early 1910s, Albert Gleizes, like Jean Metzinger, preferred to develop his complex imagery on a larger scale in bold, vivid colors. Gleizes was primarily interested in portraying the human figure in relationship to the landscape, and in this painting he took this notion a step further by merging the two with elements of the still life. In Man in a Hammock he broke the composition down into several planes plotted along a linear grid. The figure holds a book by poet Alexandre Mercereau (French, 1884–1945), who introduced Cubism to Eastern Europe through a series of exhibitions in Moscow and Prague. Gleizes was familiar with Mercereau’s work and previously collaborated with him and others in the founding the Abbaye de Crétail, a utopian artistic and literary community in a suburb of Paris. The “man in the hammock” is quite possibly a self-portrait.

Label from Picasso: The Artist and His Models, November 5, 2016–February 19, 2017