Currently not on view
Currently not on view
This tall, narrow canvas presents the Eiffel Tower rising above historical sites and monuments of Paris, and crowned by vortices of red, yellow, blue, and green. Robert Delaunay derived the attenuated nude figure on the left from a postcard showing an ancient fresco of the Three Graces in a Naples museum. The figure stands for classical beauty in juxtaposition with the modern tower. Through repeated renderings, the Eiffel Tower became not only a personal emblem for the artist but also the incarnation of the ethos he called Simultanism, which affirmed a fusion of the creative mind with the experience of modern life, rooted in industrial architecture, mass communication, and the metropolis. Delaunay infused those modern subjects with the dynamism of bold color contrasts.
This picture was a study for a panel that adorned an architectural project at the 1925 Paris International Exposition, which popularized the modern design style of Art Deco.
Currently not on view
Title: | Eiffel Tower |
Date: | c. 1925 |
Artist: | Robert Delaunay (French, 1885–1941) |
Medium: | Oil on burlap |
Dimensions: | 51 1/2 × 12 1/2 inches (130.8 × 31.8 cm) Framed: 56 1/2 × 17 7/8 × 2 inches (143.5 × 45.4 × 5.1 cm) |
Classification: | Paintings |
Credit Line: | The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950 |
Accession Number: | 1950-134-43a |
Geography: | Made in France, Europe |
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Currently not on view