Still Life with a Box of Matches (Nature morte à la boite d'allumettes)

1918

María Blanchard
Spanish, 1881-1932

This densely layered tabletop brims with the classic elements of a Paris cafe: glassware, a soda siphon, a bottle of Benedictine liqueur, and the box of matches identified in the title. Reflecting María Blanchard’s Cubist wit with bold color and heavy impasto, the painting incorporates small fragments of glass beads as one of the many textures on the work’s surface, along with coarse and fine sand. During her lifetime, Blanchard was celebrated by her fellow Cubists, and she shared studios with Juan Gris and Diego Rivera, the latter of whom described her as producing Cubism’s “finest works, apart from our master, Picasso.”

Status: On View, Gallery 391
Department: Modern Art

Artist: María Blanchard
Title: Still Life with a Box of Matches (Nature morte à la boite d'allumettes)
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1918
Medium: Oil, sand, and glass on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed lower right corner: M G-Blanchard, Signed: Blanchard and titled Nature morte à la boite d'allumettes on the reverse
Dimensions: 74 × 50 cm (29 × 19 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Joseph Winterbotham Collection
Reference Number: 2022.1493

Galerie de L’Institut, Maria Blanchard: Période Cubiste, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie de L’Institut, 1955), n.p. cat 4 (ill. as Nature morte aux cigarettes).
Pierre François, Collection Fernand Graindorge, exh. cat. (Verviers: Musée Communal de Verviers, 1958), cat. info. pending.
Louisiana Museum, Louisiana Revy, 6 no.2, (Humlebaek: Louisiana Museum, 1965), back cover.
Gilberte Martin-Méry and Jacques Lassaiagne, Les Cubistes, exh. cat. (Bordeaux: Galerie des beaux-arts, 1973), 44, cat. 54.
Antonio Martinez Cerezo, La Pintura Montañesa (Madrid: Iberico Europa de Ediciones: 1975), 79 (color ill.) as Bodegón con caja de cerillas
Ana Vázquez de Parga and Regina Barahona, Maria Blanchard: 1881-1932, exh. cat. (Madrid: Galeria Biosca, 1976), 46, 47, cat. 8, (ill.).
Banco de Bibao, Adelantados de la modernidad, exh. cat. (Bilbao: Banco de Bilbao, 1979),116, cqt. 37 (ill.), as Bodegón de la caja de cerillas.
Manuel Arce, María Blanchard, exh. cat. (Madrid: Gavar, 1980), n.p. (ill.), as Bodegón de la caja de cerillas, 1916.
A.M. Campoy, María Blanchard (Madrid: Gavar:1981), 191 (ill.).
Jacques Laissaigne and Federico García Lorca, Exposicion Maria Blanchard 1881–1932: Antológica-hamenaje e el centernario de su naciminto, exh. cat. (Zaragoza: El Museuo, 1981), n.p. (ill.), as Bodegón. Càja de cerillas.
Maria José Salazar, Maria Blanchard, exh. cat. (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura Dirección General de Bellas Artes, Archivos y Bibliotecas, 1982), 120, cat. 34, 121 (ill.), as Bodegon con caja de cerillas.
Liliane Caffin Madaule, Catalogue Raisonné des Oeuvres de Maria Blanchard, vol. I (London : Editions Liliane Caffin Madule, 1992), 220, 221 (color ill.).
María José Salazar, María Blanchard: Catálogo Razonado, Pintura, 1889-1932/Catalogue Raisonné (Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Telefonica, 2004), 212, cat. 87, 213 (color ill.).
Carmen Bernárdez, María Blanchard, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2012), 164 (color ill), 278, as Bodegón con caja de cerillas.
Bárbara García Menéndez, Lourdes Moreno and Eugenio Carmona, Juan Gris, María Blanchard y los Cubismos (1916–1927), exh. cat. (Málaga: Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga, 2017), 108, 109 (color ill.), 208, as Bodegón con caja de cerillas.

Paris, Galerie de L’Institut, Maria Blanchard: Période Cubiste, Nov. 18-Dec. 14, 1955, cat. 4, as Nature morte aux cigarettes.
Musée Communal de Verviers, Collection Fernand Graindorge, Mar. 2–30, 1958, cat. info. pending.
Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum, Collection Graindorge, Oct. 29–Nov. 28, 1965, cat. 19.
Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux Arts, Les Cubistes, May 4–Sept. 1, 1973, cat. 54: Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Sept. 26–Nov. 23, 1973, cat. 54.
Madrid, Galeria Biosca, Maria Blanchard: 1881–1932, 1976, cat. 8, as Bodegón de la caja de cerillas, 1916.
Madrid, Banco de Bilbao, Adelantados de la modernidad, May–June 1979, cat. 37, as Bodegón con caja de cerillas.
Madrid, Banco de Santander, María Blanchard, July–Aug. 1980, no cat. no., as Bodegón de la caja de cerillas, 1916.
Zaragoza, Museo e Instituto de Humanidades Camon Aznar, Exposicion María Blanchard 1881–1932: Antológica-hamenaje e el centernario de su naciminto, Feb.–Mar. 1981, no cat. no., as Bodegón. Càja de cerillas.
Madrid, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Ciudad Universitaria, Maria Blanchard, Jan.–Mar., 1982, cat. 34, as Bodegon con caja de cerillas.
Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid, Aproarte 86, May, 1986, cat. info. pending.
Santander, Fundación Botín, María Blanchard: Cubista, June 22–Sept. 16, 2012, no cat. no. as Bodegón con caja de cerillas.; Madrid, as María Blanchard: Retrospectiva, Oct 16–Feb. 25, 2013.
Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga, Juan Gris, María Blanchard y los Cubismos (1916–1927), Oct. 6, 2017–Feb. 25, 2018, cat. 21, Bodegón con caja de cerillas.

The artist; probably with Léonce Rosenberg (1979–1947), by 1920 [letter from Léonce Rosenberg to Maria Blanchard, Feb. 24, 1920, Fonds Galerie L’Effort Moderne - Léonce Rosenberg, LROS 1, Bibliothèque Kandinsky - MNAM-CCI - Centre Pompidou, Paris; copy in curatorial object file]. Fernand C. Graindorge (1903–1985), Liège, Belgium, probably mid-1930s and by 1955 [Paris 1955 and according to his collecting practices as described in correspondence from Fernande C. Graindorge, Apr. 15, 1976; copy in curatorial object file]; with Galerie Melki, Paris, by 1973 [correspondence from Ben Elwes Fine Arts, Aug. 29, 2022; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Modarco, Madrid; sold to Rafael Berez-Escolar, Madrid, c. 1973; consigned to Edmund Peel Fine Art Consulting, London, 2006; sold to Percacer (Alberto Cortina), Madrid, 2006; sold through Ben Elwes Fine Art, London, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 8, 2022.

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