JACQUES
VILLONDamville (Normandy) 1875 - 1963 Puteaux
Le petit Atelier de mécanique, 1914
The Small Mechanical Workshop
Etching
160 x 197 mm.; 6 1/8 x 7 9/16 inches
Signed and annotated: tiré à 50
References:
Auberty & Pérussaux 202
Ginestet & Pouillon E. 289
Notes:
1. This etching testifies to the interest of Villon and the whole Duchamp family in the machine, or the machine-shop, as the quintessence of the increasingly mechanical, modern world. This work is closely related to three Villon paintings based on a similar subject. The first of these, not very “cubist” in its conception, is Le petit Atelier mécanique, 1913 (Phillips Collection in Washington, D. C.). Having the same title, the second of these paintings (of vertical format and cropped) is dated 1914 and was last known to be in a private New York collection (illustrated as plate 59a in: Jacques Villon, Fogg Art Museum, 1976). The third and perhaps most accomplished of these three paintings is L’Atelier de mécanique of 1914 (formerly collection John Quinn, New York; then collection Ferdinand Howald, Columbus, Ohio; and now in the
Columbus Museum of Art). This latter work is very close to the image of the present etching, but depicted in the reverse direction. This would appear to indicate that the etching was done after (après) the execution of the painting and as an interpretation or variant based on (d’après) the painting.
2. This etching is the last in a series of cubist prints executed by Villon between 1912 and 1914. Commencing with Musiciens chez le Bistrot of 1912, each of these works
appears increasingly abstract, with the most abstract composition being this last one. Except for the wires and pulleys, represented by lines and triangles at the upper right, the subject treated, or created, by Villon is in this case virtually unidentifiable.