Jean
Metzinger

Jean Metzinger (Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger, June 24, 1883, Nantes, France - November 3, 1956, Paris, France) - French artist, writer, poet and art theorist. Metzinger was born into a famous military family. As a child, he was fond of mathematics, music and drawing, and, although his mother predicted a career as a doctor for him, Jean decided to study painting. The artist received his education in Nantes, and then moved to Paris after three of his works were exhibited at the Salon of the Independent and were successfully sold. Already at the age of 20, Metzinger fully supported himself through painting. In 1904-1908 he worked in the styles of divisionism and fauvism, and then became one of the first artists who began to write cubist canvases. Despite the fact that the creators of Cubism are considered Pablo Picasso and George braque, it was Jean Metzenge, together with his friend and colleague Albert Glez, who formulated his theoretical substantiation in the treatise “Cubism” of 1912.

Features of the artist Jean Metzenzhe: his early works, which are a kind of synthesis of divisionism and fauvism, are distinguished by a very bright, sunny palette and unusual technique. Instead of strokes in the form of dots, Metzinger used small rectangles, turning his paintings into a color mosaic. From the beginning of 1910, the artist switched to analytical cubism, which was later transformed into the so-called “crystalline”. In 1918, Metzenge returns to figurative painting, however, he continues to periodically introduce a cubistic structure into the paintings, while maintaining the recognition of forms.

Famous paintings by Jean Metzenge: «Tropical landscape","Table by the window","Low tide","Woman with a Horse (Horsewoman)","Bathers".

Author: Evgeny Sidelnikov.