Damville (Normandy) 1875 - 1963 Puteaux

Musiciens chez le bistro,1912

Musicians in a Bistro

Etching developed first in aquatint and soft-ground

271 x 237 mm.; 10 ¾ x 9 3/8 inches

Signed and numbered 31/50

Provenance:

Collection of Jacqueline and Bernard Gheerbrant, founders of the Librairie La Hune at

St. Germain-des-Près in Paris.

Reference:

Auberty & Pérussaux no.185

Ginestet & Pouillon E. 270

Notes:

1. This is a key work in Villon’s graphic oeuvre. Early in 1912, Villon (and Gleizes, Gris and Metzinger as well) read about the Golden Section (a triangle whose height is exactly one-half of its width) in the then new translation into French of Leonardo da Vinci’s Trattato della Pittura (Treatise on Painting). Villon, as an artist at this time, could have returned to a form of post-Impressionism or could have moved in the direction of the Cubism being developed by Braque and Picasso. In Musiciens chez le Bistro, Villon has chosen a very post-Impressionist type of subject at the same time that his treatment of the subject is quite avant-garde for that time and very different from that of the Impressionists. Villon in fact has created from an underlying impressionist-type subject (treated interestingly in its early states in an impressionist manner) a series of abstract forms which in themselves and in their juxtapositions have their own aesthetic values. Later in 1912 and then particularly in 1913-1914, veering sharply away from both his own post-Impressionist tendencies as well as from the Cubism of Braque and Picasso, Villon created a series of what we now perceive as revolutionary and independently conceived masterpieces based on the use of the Golden Section.

2. The guitariste in this scene is Jacques Bon who lived at 3 rue Lemaître in Puteaux, next door to 7 rue Lemaître where Villon and his   wife Gabrielle ("Gaby") lived from 1906 onwards. Jacques Bon’s sister, Yvonne (not to be confused with Villon’s own sister, also named Yvonne), married Villon’s sculptor-brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon. Jacques Bon is portrayed in a number of Villon’s other works, including the drypoint/etching L’Aventure dating from 1935 (ref; Ginestet & Pouillon E.387).