''Groupe de femmes'', also called ''Groupe de trois femmes'', or ''Groupe de trois personnages'', is an early

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

sculpture created by the Hungarian

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, and graphic artist Joseph Csaky (1888–1971). This sculpture formerly known from a black and white photograph (Galerie René Reichard) had been erroneously entitled ''Deux Femmes (Two Women)'', as the image captured on an angle showed only two figures. An additional photograph found in the Csaky family archives shows a frontal view of the work, revealing three figures rather than two. Csaky's sculpture was exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne, and the 1913

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name i ...

, Paris. A photograph taken of Salle XI ''in sitiu'' at the 1912 Salon d'Automne and published in ''L'Illustration'', 12 October 1912, p. 47, shows ''Groupe de femmes'' exhibited alongside the works of

Jean Metzinger Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (; 24 June 1883 – 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1 ...

František Kupka František Kupka (23 September 1871 – 24 June 1957), also known as ''Frank Kupka'' or ''François Kupka,'' was a Czech painter and graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, eit ...

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, writer, filmmaker, magazine publisher, poet, and typography, typographist closely associated with Dada. When consid ...

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

and Henri Le Fauconnier. At the 1913 Salon des Indépendants ''Groupe de femmes'' was exhibited in the company works by

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (; 12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist of the School of Paris movement; who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism (art), Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and g ...

, André Lhote,

Raymond Duchamp-Villon Raymond Duchamp-Villon (5 November 1876 – 9 October 1918) was a French sculptor. Life and art Duchamp-Villon was born Pierre-Maurice-Raymond Duchamp in Damville, Eure, in the Normandy region of France, the second son of Eugène and Lucie Duch ...

Jacques Villon Jacques Villon (July 31, 1875 – June 9, 1963), also known as Gaston Duchamp, was a French Cubist and Abstract art, abstract painter and printmaker. Early life Born Émile Méry Frédéric Gaston Duchamp in Damville, Eure, Damville, Eure, ...

and

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

. The whereabouts of ''Groupe de femmes'' is unknown and the sculpture is presumed to have been destroyed.

Description

''Groupe de femmes'' is a plaster sculpture (as many of Csaky's works of the period), carved in a vertical format with unknown dimensions. The work represents three standing nudes, classical in theme (i.e., ''Les trois graces''), yet executed in an abstract stylized

vocabulary, in opposition to the softness and curvilinearity of

Nabis Nabis may refer to: * Nabis of Sparta, reigned 207–192 BCE * Nabis (art), a Parisian post-Impressionist artistic group * ''Nabis'' (bug), a genus of insects * NABIS, National Ballistics Intelligence Service, a British government agency See a ...

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

forms.Edith Balas, 1998, Joseph Csaky: A Pioneer of Modern Sculpture , American Philosophical Society
/ref> The dominating central figure is flanked by a woman to her left and another to the right, positioned slightly behind. Two of the women are holding drapery that flows rigidly down to their legs to the base of the sculpture. The figures are constructed with a robust, muscular build, distilled in the form of almost androgynous stature, together forming a tight cohesive mass. The heads and features of the figures, seen in both profile and frontal views, are treated as a series of faceted planar forms that communicated in a strange novel 3-dimensional language; one that at the time broke away from every natural and rational convention. Albert Elsen characterized Csaky's ''Head'' sculpture of 1913 in a way that applies to the heads depicted in ''Groupe de femmes'':

His Head is a brutal asymmetrical reconstruction of the motif that submerges featural identity by a logic of thrusting planar forms. The result, unlike that of Filla, is the redesigning of the head that is no longer dependent upon a frontal confrontation for the most revealing view, and the consistency of this sculptural context discourages trying to project missing features on the blank planes. The blunt force-fulness with which the head is shaped and thrusts in and out suggests that Csaky had looked not only at Picasso's earlier painting and sculpture, but also at African tribal masks whose exaggerated features and simplified design accommodated the need to be seen at a distance and to evoke strong feeling. (Elsen)

Csaky's heads of the period partake in the "stylized, hieratic, nonportrait tradition of tribal and ancient art", writes Edith Balas, "in which there is a total lack of interest in depicting psychological traits". Csaky's ''Groupe de femmes'' and the ''Head'' (1913) "are lost sculptures that testify to Csaky's early immersion in cubism".

History

This works was likely realized at Csaky's studio in La Ruche; the artist enclave of

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

, among many members of the Parisian

. From the outset of the 20th-century Paris was the art center of the world, where artists came to live and work from all parts of Europe and beyond: Joseph Csaky from

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism ...

from Hobitza,

from Livorno,

Gino Severini Gino Severini (7 April 1883 – 26 February 1966) was an Italian Painting, painter and a leading member of the Futurism (art), Futurist movement. For much of his life he divided his time between Paris and Rome. He was associated with neo-classici ...

from Rome,

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculpture, sculptor, and graphic designer, graphic artist, active in France and the United States. He was one of the first to apply the principles o ...

from Kiev,

Ossip Zadkine Ossip Alexeevich Zadkine (; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Russian and French artist of the School of Paris. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs. Early years and education Zadkine was born o ...

from Smolensk,

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

from St. Petersburg,

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Lithuanian-born French-American Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, domi ...

from Vilna,

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...

from Amsterdam, Moïse Kisling from Kraków,

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

from Barcelona, Louis Marcoussis from Kraków, Chaïm Soutine from Vilnius. During his proto-Cubist phase Csaky had already separated himself from the past. By 1911-12 Csaky participation in the avant-garde milieu was complete. His acquaintances included Gustave Miklos, Archipenko, Braque, Chagall, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Le Fauconnier, Laurens, Léger, Lipchitz, Metzinger, Picasso and

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...

, in addition to Pierre Reverdy, Maurice Raynal,

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic c ...

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars (), was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European ...

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

and Ricciotto Canudo. After exhibiting ''Groupe de femmes'' with the Cubists at the 1912 Salon d'Automne,

Grand Palais The (; ), commonly known as the , is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, France. Construction of the began in 1897 following the demolitio ...

des Champs Elysées—an exhibition that provoked a ''succès de scandal'', and resulted in a xenophobe and anti-modernist quarrel in the French

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

—Csaky exhibited his Cubist works at the Salon de la Section d'Or, Galerie La Boétie, Paris, October 1912; considered one of the high points of the Cubist movement. Csaky was one of the first artists to apply Cubist principles to sculpture; principles that he would never abandon or disavow. Michel Seuphor has written:

Csaky, after Archipenko, was the first sculptor to join the cubists, with whom he exhibited from 1911 on. They were followed by Duchamp-Villon, brother of
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...
and of
Jacques Villon Jacques Villon (July 31, 1875 – June 9, 1963), also known as Gaston Duchamp, was a French Cubist and Abstract art, abstract painter and printmaker. Early life Born Émile Méry Frédéric Gaston Duchamp in Damville, Eure, Damville, Eure, ...
, and then in 1914 by Lipchitz, Laurens and Zadkine.Robert Rosenblum, "Cubism", Readings in Art History 2, 1976, Seuphor, Sculpture of this Century, 29

In ''Groupe de femmes'' Csaky already showed a new way of representing nature, and the unwillingness to revert to classical, academic or traditional methods of representation. The complex syntax observed in ''Groupe de femmes'' was born out of an increasing sense of contemporary dynamism, out of the rhythm, balance, harmony and powerful geometric qualities of Egyptian art, of African art, early Cycladic art, Gothic art, and of

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (; 14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Ar ...

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the ...

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

Georges Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , ; ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough ...

and

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

. Csaky wrote of the direction his art had taken during the crucial years:

There was no question which was my way. True, I was not alone, but in the company of several artists who came from Eastern Europe. I joined the cubists in the Académie de La Palette, which became the sanctuary of the new direction in art. On my part I did not want to imitate anyone or anything. This is why I joined the cubists movement. (Joseph Csaky)

Works exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne

* Joseph Csaky exhibited the sculptures ''Groupe de femmes'', 1911-1912 (location unknown), ''Portrait de M.S.H.'', no. 91 (location unknown), and '' Danseuse (Femme à l'éventail, Femme à la cruche)'' no. 405 (location unknown) *

entered three works: '' Dancer in a café'' (entitled ''Danseuse''), ''La Plume Jaune'' (''The Yellow Feather''), '' Femme à l'Éventail (Woman with a Fan)'' (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York), hung in the decorative arts section inside ''La Maison Cubiste'' (the ''Cubist House''). *

, 1912, ''La Source'' (''The Spring'') (Museum of Modern Art, New York) *

exhibited ''La Femme en Bleu'' (''Woman in Blue''), 1912 (Kunstmuseum, Basel) and ''Le passage à niveau'' (''The Level Crossing''), 1912 (Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland) * Roger de La Fresnaye, ''Les Baigneuse'' (''The bathers'') 1912 (The National Gallery, Washington) and ''Les joueurs de cartes'' (Card Players) * Henri Le Fauconnier, ''The Huntsman'' (Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands) and ''Les Montagnards attaqués par des ours'' (''Mountaineers Attacked by Bears'') 1912 (Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design). *

Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...

, '' l'Homme au Balcon (Man on a Balcony, Portrait of Dr. Théo Morinaud)'', 1912 (Philadelphia Museum of Art), also exhibited at the

Armory show The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was organized by thAssociation of American Painters and Sculptors It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibition ...

, New York, Chicago, Boston, 1913. * André Lhote, ''Le jugement de Paris'', 1912 (Private collection) *

, ''Amorpha, Fugue à deux couleurs'' (''Fugue in Two Colors''), 1912 (Narodni Galerie, Prague), and ''Amorpha Chromatique Chaude''. *

, ''Family Life'', 1912, sculpture (destroyed) *

, exhibited four sculptures of elongated and highly stylized heads

Exhibitions

* Salon d'Automne, Paris, 1 October - 8 November 1912 (not listed in the catalogue but known to have been exhibited from a photograph taken of Salle XI ''in sitiu'' at the 1912 Salon d'Automne and published in ''L'Illustration'', 12 October 1912, p. 47). *

(Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants), Paris, 1913, listed in the catalogue as ''Groupe de femmes'' (plaster). * Galerie Moos, Geneva, 1920 (no number).

Literature

* René Reichard, ''Joseph Csaky'', Frankfurt, 1988, n. 14. * Billy Klüver and Julie Martin, ''Kiki de Montparnasse'', Flammarion, 1989, salle XI, rep. p. 47. * Edith Balas, ''Joseph Csaky, A Pioneer of Modern Sculpture'', American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA., 1998, fig. 5, rep. p. 23. * Félix Marcilhac, ''József Csáky, Du cubisme historique à la figuration réaliste, catalogue raisonné des sculptures'', Les Editions de l'Amateur, Paris, 2007. rep. p. 314 (1912-FM.14)

Related works

Image:Cycladic harp player.jpg, Early Cycladic art II period, ''Harp Player'', marble, H 13,5 cm, W 5,7 cm, D 10,9 cm, Cycladic figurine, Bronze Age, early spedos type,

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, Karlsruhe, Germany File:Les Trois Graces LP 5.jpg, ''Les Trois Graces'', Marble, exhibited at the 1831 Salon. The plaster model was finished by 1825,

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, Paris, Department of Sculptures, Richelieu, ground floor, room 32 File:Auguste Rodin Raphael Trois Graces Gsell 265.jpg, Raphaël, ''Les Trois Graces'', cited by Auguste Rodin. In ''L'Art'', interview by Paul Gsell, Grasset, 1911, page 265 File:Three Graces Met 2010.260.jpg, ''The Three Graces''. Copie artwork of the Imperial period after a Greek original of the 2nd century BC,

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File:Louvre-Lens - L'Europe de Rubens - 148 - Les Trois Grâces.JPG, L'Europe de Rubens, ''Les Trois Grâces'' File:Trois baigneuses, par Paul Cézanne, Musée du Petit Palais.jpg,

, ''Trois baigneuses'', 1879–1882, oil on canvas, 42 x 55 cm,

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, Paris File:Auguste Rodin, The three shades (Les Trois Ombres), for the top of The Gates of Hell, before 1886, plaster.jpg,

, ''The three shades'' ("Les Trois Ombres"), for the top of ''The Gates of Hell'', before 1886, plaster File:Paul Gauguin, 1894, Oviri (Sauvage), partially glazed stoneware, 75 x 19 x 27 cm, Musée d'Orsay.jpg,

, 1894, '' Oviri (Sauvage)'', partially glazed stoneware, 75 x 19 x 27 cm,

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

, Paris Image:Alexander Archipenko, 1912, Le Repos, Armory Show post card, 1913.jpg,

, 1912, ''Le Repos'',

Armory Show The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was organized by thAssociation of American Painters and Sculptors It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibition ...

post card, 1913 Image:Alexander Archipenko, La Vie Familiale, Family Life, 1912.jpg,

, 1912, ''La Vie Familiale'' (''Family Life''). Exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and the 1913 Armory Show in New York, Chicago and Boston. The original sculpture (approx. six feet tall) accidentally destroyed Image:Joseph Csaky, Head, 1913, Plaster lost. Photo René Richard, Joseph Csáky, Frankfurt, 1988.jpg, Joseph Csaky, ''Head (self-portrait)'', 1913, Plaster lost. Photo published in Montjoie, 1914 File:Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, 1914, Boy with a Coney (Boy with a rabbit), marble.jpg, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, 1914, ''Boy with a Coney (Boy with a rabbit)'', marble

Notes and references

External links

Canudo, Ricciotto, 1914, Montjoie, text by André Salmon, 3rd issue, 18 March

Ministère de la Culture, France, La Médiathèque de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, Base Memoire

Base Arcade, Culture.gouv.fr Csaky

Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Holland, 23 works by Joseph Csaky

Agence Photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées
{{DEFAULTSORT:Groupe de femmes Sculptures by Joseph Csaky 1911 sculptures 1912 sculptures Cubist sculptures De Stijl Nude sculptures of women Purism Destroyed sculptures