Still Life

1911

Max Weber (American, born Białystok, Russian Empire, now Poland, 1881–1961)

Max Weber was one of the earliest American artists to explore Cubism, inspired by his friendship with Pablo Picasso. He met the Spanish artist in Paris while studying there in 1905–08, and at that time acquired one of Picasso’s still lifes—which became the first painting by Picasso to enter the United States. After his return to New York, Weber developed an expressive and increasingly sophisticated Cubist style. In Still Life, he rendered diverse elements in a complex and dynamic arrangement. The calligraphic handling of line energizes the forms of the composition, and the short, choppy brushwork breaks the pictorial space into planes. Although American critics, unfamiliar with or antagonistic toward modern painting, frequently responded harshly to Weber’s figural paintings, his still lifes met with approval, establishing him as the most advanced artist working in New York before the Armory Show.

Status: On View, Gallery 271
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Max Weber
Title: Still Life
Place: United States (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1911
Medium: Oil with charcoal or chalk on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated l.r.: "Max Weber 1911"
Dimensions: 54.8 × 46 cm (21 1/2 × 18 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Quinn E. Delaney and American Art Sales Proceeds funds; through prior acquisition of the George F. Harding Collection; Mr. and Mrs. Frederick G. Wacker Jr. Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 2011.267

Judith Barter et al., Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 185–88, 226, cat. 71, fig. 2 (ill.).
Sarah Kelly Oehler, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 23–24, cat. 14 (ill.).
Sarah Macdougall et al., “Max Weber: An American Cubist in Paris and London, 1905–15,” (Ben Uri Gallery/ Lund Humphries Pub Ltd, 2014).

Art Institute of Chicago, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950, Mar. 3–Jun. 2, 2013, cat. 14.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, Nov. 10, 2013–Jan. 27, 2014, cat. 71; Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Feb. 22–May 18, 2014.

The artist; given to either Nathan Miller (1873–1927) and Linda Miller (born Linda Rosenburg, 1877–1936), New Rochelle, NY, or their daughter, Helen Davis (born Helen T. Miller, later Helen Miller Obstler, 1898–1990), New Rochelle, NY, by 1943; given by Helen Davis to Elinor Gluck Metcoff (born Elinor F. Gluck, 1919–2012) and Dr. Jack Metcoff (1917–1994), on their wedding, New York, Apr. 16, 1943; given to a private collection, Chicago, 2009; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2011.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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