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

Abstract, Cubist painting of objects on a table, highly geometric and boldy rendered in angular shapes of yellow, green blue, and brown. Errant details and textures emerge, often indecipherable as specific objects, but a small book of matches at center is clearly rendered, down to the writing on its cover.

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  • Abstract, Cubist painting of objects on a table, highly geometric and boldy rendered in angular shapes of yellow, green blue, and brown. Errant details and textures emerge, often indecipherable as specific objects, but a small book of matches at center is clearly rendered, down to the writing on its cover.

Date:

1918

Artist:

María Blanchard
Spanish, 1881-1932

About this artwork

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.”

This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. Click here to learn more about the collection.

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  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.

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

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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