Jean Metzinger: Woman with a Horse

Here, a classical motif has been painted on a monumental scale.

Its most strikingly modern feature is the way it dissolves into geometric facets. It is conservative and contemporary at one and the same time.

Developing Cubism

Metzinger’s first Cubist works were inspired by Picasso, but he soon took Cubism in a different direction. In his paintings, motifs and compositions took shape in a state of ongoing dialogue with the art of the past. The objective was to create a work that connected past and present.

Metzinger's dissemination of Cubism

Whereas Picasso stuck closely to an  exclusive circle of allies, Metzinger played a crucial part in the wider dissemination of Cubism. From 1910 onwards he exhibited Cubist works at the salons. He was also one of the first to put Cubist thoughts into writing, e.g. with the manifesto Du Cubisme from 1912.