
© Estate of Francis Picabia / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Estate of Francis Picabia / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Estate of Francis Picabia / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.



Francis Picabia
French, 1879-1953
Figure triste (Sad Visage), 1912
oil on canvas
support: 47 1/2 x 47 1/2 inches (120.65 x 120.65 cm); framed: 49 x 49 x 2 1/4 inches (124.46 x 124.46 x 5.72 cm)
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Gift of The Seymour H. Knox Foundation, Inc., 1968
1968:6
More Details
Inscriptions
Provenance
the artist;to the French painter, Jean Crotti [1878-1958] and his wife, French painter Suzanne Duchamp [1889-1963], Paris.
Private collection, Paris.
M. Knoedler & Company, New York;
January 1968, purchased by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Class
Work Type
Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms
In early 1911, Francis Picabia was creating colorful and expressive paintings in a Fauvist manner, but by the end of the year, he had developed a fragmented, planar approach in response to Cubism. Here, Picabia chose a somber palette: black, grey, and white paired with a cold blue, a hue that is traditionally associated with feelings of unhappiness. Within the abstracted composition, we can perceive a small seated figure in profile with its knees slightly drawn up, right arm extended, and its head leaning to the side supported by a bent left arm. Such body language conveys despondency and is reminiscent of earlier representations of Melancholy in art. This small figure appears, in turn, to be surrounded by the embrace of another, larger figure. Picabia, whose own mother died when he was just seven years old, may be depicting a scene of maternal comfort or grief.
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Cubism
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