Max Weber and Pablo Picasso Author(S): Percy North Source: American Art, Vol

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Bringing Cubism to America: Max Weber and Pablo Picasso Author(s): Percy North Source: American Art, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 58-77 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3109363 Accessed: 11-04-2019 00:00 UTC

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms I Pa- Il*t:- "1

This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Bringing Cubism to America Max Weber and Pablo Picasso

Percy North Shortly after its inception in Paris, cub- Avenue, called "291," and the first to ism first appeared in the United States in have his new experimental work pub- 1909 with Max Weber's fledgling mod- lished in the American press that same ernist work, a result of the artist's brief year. Influenced by the innovative, formal friendship the year before with Pablo strategies of Picasso, Matisse, and Picasso. Weber met Picasso at one of the Cezanne, Weber at first applied these celebrated soirees that collector Leo Stein innovations to traditional French cubist and his sister, Gertrude, hosted in Paris. themes of nudes, still lifes, and land- Weber visited the young Spaniard's scapes. Later, he extended his range of studio and was influenced by the work subjects to include vaudeville and New he saw there. Despite limited financial York and helped redefine the stylistic and resources, he bought a small Cezanne- thematic boundaries of American art. His inspired still life by Picasso and brought urban paintings Chinese Restaurant (1915; it with him to New York. While Picasso's fig. 1), Rush Hour, New York (1915; fig. legendary instigation and exploration of 2), Grand Central Terminal, and New cubism with his French co-creator York Department Store are considered Georges Braque has been celebrated and masterpieces of American cubism. extensively documented, much less atten- Although Weber's influence was less tion has been devoted to Weber's impres- global than Picasso's, both men changed sive early cubist experimentation and the the course of twentieth-century art significance of his interaction with through their cubist explorations. This Picasso. article examines the nature of their On his return to New York in January friendship, its influence on Weber's early of 1909, after spending over three years cubist paintings, and the introduction of in Paris, the twenty-eight-year-old Weber cubism to Americans.1 embarked on a decade of creativity that established him as America's greatest cubist painter and proved to be the most sig- Paris Intersections nificant years of his career. He was the first artist to exhibit protocubist paintings A naturalized American citizen, Max in the United States in the 1910 Younger Weber (1881-1961) had been born in Max Weber, Vaudeville (detail), American Painters exhibition at Alfred 1909. Oil, 51 x 36 cm (20 x 14 in.). Bialystok, Russia, just six months before The Farber Collection, New York Stieglitz's legendary gallery at 291 Fifth Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain.

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Weber arrived in Paris on September 25, level for four years, Weber considered 1905, at the age of twenty-four, just in himself a student. He registered for time to witness the debut of fauvism at classes at the Academie Julian on October the third annual Salon d'Automne that 9, 1905. The small art school on the left opened on October 18. He settled in bank of the Seine had been a haven for Montparnasse, where he remained until American impressionist painters during he left for America in late 1908. Picasso the 1890s. The Academie Julian contin- had arrived in Paris from Barcelona in ued to attract numerous foreign students, 1900 for the first of several visits. In 1904 who were ineligible to study at the presti- gious Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Leo Stein, with whom Weber would share a passionate interest in Cezanne, had entered the "Lengthy ... discussions on the Academie Julian in 1903. Weber's profes- most recent developments and sor, Jean-Paul Laurens, a master of narra- tive painting, whose most impressive trends in art took place, with Leo works could be seen in the Parisian as moderator andpontiff Here Pantheon, insisted on detailed drawing one feltfree to throw artistic as the underpinning of all painting. Since Weber had studied in the United States atom bombs and many cerebral with the more progressive Arthur Wesley explosions did take place. " Dow at Pratt, he was antagonistic to what he perceived to be the outmoded refine- -Max Weber ment of academic discipline. He abandoned his studies at the Academie Julian in February 1906 to draw without critique at the academies of Colarossi and he established a permanent base on a La Grande Chaumiere in Montparnasse.3 quiet corner of the butte of Montmartre, When Weber was not drawing or where he resided until 1909 at a studio painting, he visited the city's many muse- referred to as the Bateau-Lavoir, because ums so that he became well versed in the the shape of the building resembled a entire history and range of world art. He laundry barge.2 was especially attracted to Asian art Although Weber and Picasso were (which Dow had shown him) and fre- both struggling young artists, their situa- quented the Musee Guimet. Weber dis- tions in Paris in 1905 were markedly dis- covered African and Pre-Columbian art at similar. Picasso had been a child prodigy, the Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero, whose family had fostered his genius. Al- now the Musee de l'Homme, and at- though he was living in poverty in his tended exhibitions at galleries of ancient early Paris years, Picasso was already as well as contemporary art. reaching a mature phase in his career Weber was eager to improve his skills and had produced an impressive body and searched for progressive instruction. of work. Weber, on the other hand, had In January 1908, he was among a group come from an Orthodox Jewish family of students who encouraged Matisse, the that did not encourage his artistic talents. star of the fauve salon he had seen, to Even though he had earned a teaching critique their paintings. Weber wrote to degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn his friend the American painter Abraham and had taught drawing and manual Walkowitz about his helping to organize training at the high school and college the class along with Leo Stein and his

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms sister-in-law, Sarah Stein. Although the referred to Weber in a letter to Picasso school started in the Couvent des Oiseaux describing events associated with an exhi- on the rue de Sevres, Matisse was forced bition of American art at the Musee du to move to the Couvent du Sacre Coeur Luxembourg. While there is no evidence on the Boulevard des Invalides during the that Weber ever purchased a painting by spring. The grand eighteenth-century Seurat, he acquired small works by hotelparticulier, which had been a con- Matisse and Picasso, and she may easily vent during the nineteenth century, had have forgotten the specifics of the inci- expansive rooms suitable for studios with dent after so many years.6 large windows that faced a beautiful gar- Weber was closer to Leo Stein than to den. The French government allowed his sister, Gertrude (fig. 3). The siblings artists to use spaces in abandoned con- had lived together at 27 rue de Fleurus vents without leases, so that they could since 1903. Much later Weber remem- be put out without warning when a bered the celebrated soirees: suitable use was determined for the buildings.4 Leo and Gertrude Stein graciously received In The Autobiography ofAlice B. Toklas art students, students ofphilosophy and lan- (1933), Gertrude Stein's memoir that guages at the Sorbonne; writers, youngpo- documents her catalytic association with ets, musicians, and scientists who came to the movers and shakers of the art world study the paintings of Cezanne and those of during the early twentieth century, she the other rising artists. For hours they stood relates an anecdote about the Matisse class: around a large table in the center of the room, examiningportfolios full of drawings There were quite a number ofamericans. by Matisse, Picasso, and others, andfolios One of these americans under a plea ofpov- stocked with superb Japaneseprints. This erty was receiving his tuition for nothing salon was a sort of intellectual clearing and then wasfound to have purchasedfor house of ideas and matters of art, for the himselfa tiny Matisse and a tiny Picasso young and aspiring artists from all over the and a tiny Seurat. This was not only unfair, world. Lengthy and involved discussions on because many of the others wanted and the most recent developments and trends in could not afford to own a picture by the art took place, with Leo as moderator and master and they were paying their tuition, pontiff Here onefeltfree to throw artistic but, since he also bought a Picasso, it was atom bombs and many cerebral explosions treason. did take place.7

This description may well refer to Weber, Gertrude and Leo's brother, Michael, although he did not purchase the Picasso and his wife, Sarah, also held open house Still Life until the autumn of 1908, after on Saturday evenings, at 58 rue Madame, he had left the Matisse class. Weber was around the corner from the younger later pleased to relate that Gertrude Stein Steins, and the participants could move told him that Matisse had said, "He's the easily from one residence to the other. most interesting youth for me in Paris."5 These evenings enabled Weber and Gertrude Stein does not mention other art students to examine the Stein Weber by name in her Autobiography. families' notable collections of paintings However, Weber's friend the expatriate by cutting-edge artists, including Picasso, American photographer Alvin Langdon whose work Leo and Gertrude Stein had Coburn mentioned him in a letter to her collected since 1905. on April 30, 1913. As late as 1919, she Weber probably met Picasso at Leo

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1 Max Weber, Chinese Restaurant, 1915. Oil, 101.6 x 122 cm (40 x 48 in.). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2 Max Weber, Rush Hour, New York, 1915. Oil, 92.1 x 77 cm (361/4 x 30 /4 in.). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of the Avalon Foundation

and Gertrude Stein's home in the fall of art.8 And both men intensely wanted to 1908. An exchange of studio visits fol- make important, challenging art. lowed shortly thereafter. The two small Weber exhibited seven works in the young men with penetrating gazes shared Salon d'Automne, which were selected interests in Cezanne (who would increas- by a jury that Matisse and his friends ingly inspire innovative directions for both dominated. Picasso, on the other hand, artists), El Greco, African tribal art, Japa- did not participate in large public exhibi- nese prints, and ancient artifacts. They tions, but saw every Independants and may have discussed El Greco's work, Salon d'Automne exhibition up to World since the sixth Salon d'Automne that year War One. included a retrospective exhibition of his Three short letters in French document

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Je vu votrepaysages et nature morte hier soir chez Leo Stein. Sont vraiment superb.

(Dear Mr. Picasso: I will come to your place this week to get my little still life, which you have keptfor mefor the past three weeks. I am certain that I will have the money this week. I assure you that I will be very happy to see it. With much appreciation and esteem. Sincerely yours, Max Weber, 7 rue Belloni. I saw your landscapes and still life last night at Leo Stein s. They are truly superb)

The picture Weber referred to is presumably the virtually unknown, hitherto un- published Still Life (fig. 4) that remains in the collection of the artist's family. Similar to several other still lifes by Picasso from 1908, it depicts a covered jar, a sphere (perhaps an apple), a curved 3 Leo Stein, Nina Auzias (later Mrs. the two artists' brief but consequential shape (possibly a cucumber), and a Leo Stein), waiter, Max Weber, faceted pear.9 and unidentified woman at Cafe relationship. Weber did not speak French on his arrival in Paris and learned the ru- du Dome, Paris, ca. 1907-1908. Weber had been producing still lifes Detail of photo from Beinecke diments of the language with the aid of a based on Cezanne's shifting perspectives Rare Book and Manuscript dictionary. In typical French fashion, they since he saw the commemorative Library, Yale University addressed each other formally. Curiously, Cezanne retrospective in 1907 at the Weber used the English form of address, Salon d'Automne. Picasso's work may "Mr. Picasso," perhaps considering it to have reinforced Weber's exploration of be an abbreviation for "monsieur." In a the genre. In the manner of his friend's letter dated October 25, 1908, he wrote: Still Life, Weber created numerous small still-life compositions in a restricted pal- Cher Mr. Picasso: ette using foreground placement of geo- metric shapes to investigate formal Je serai chez vous cet relationships. semaine pour apprendre mon petite Picasso's only extant message to Weber nature morte qui vous avez regarde is postmarked November 10, 1908. Since pour moi depuis trois semaine. Je Picasso was not at home on at least one suis certain quejaurai I'argent occasion when Weber appeared at his stu- cet semaine. dio, he may not have acquired the "little still life" until November. Picasso wrote: Je vous assure queje serai tres heureux de la voir. Paris 13 rue Ravignan XVIIIe Avec beaucoup d'appreciation et estime. Cher Monsieur: Votre sincere, Je regrete de ne pas avoir ete Max Weber chez moi quand vous etes venu, 7 rue Belloni je serais chez moi toute la semaine

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 4 Pablo Picasso, Still Life, 1908. Oil mais si vous voulez venez demain. fixture in his Bateau-Lavoir studio. on panel, 26.7 x 21 cm (10 /2 x Mercredije serais tres content de Weber also would have seen the monu- 8 1/4 in.). Estate of Max Weber vous voir. mental canvas of Three Women (1908), Bien a vous, which would later influence his crystal Picasso figures. Weber recalled that Picasso visited his studio at 7 rue Belloni, where (Dear Sir: I regret that I was not at home he was working on a painting called when you came. I will be at home all week, Summer (fig. 6). 11 but ifyou would like to come tomorrow, Weber probably began Summer in Paris Wednesday, I will be pleased to see you. and completed it in the United States. Yours truly, Picasso.)10 Similar to Matisse's arcadian fauve paintings in its erotic subject, lively color, and When Weber visited Picasso that au- heavy impasto, it shows three langorous tumn, Les Demoiselles dAvignon (fig. 5), female nudes relaxing en plein air. The his landmark painting finished the previ- seductive poses of the flattened stylized ous year, would have been a prominent nudes and their insertion between layered

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 5 Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, June-July 1907. Oil, 244 x 234 cm (96 x 92 in.). Museum of Modern Art, New York, Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest

planes are also reminiscent of Les Demoi- time) the banquet that Picasso held in selles dAvignon. Weber's sumptuous late November to honor the much older greenery in Summer evokes Henri artist. Weber may have been too serious Rousseau's jungle foliage. Rousseau was for the lively crew who staged the event.12 Weber's closest friend in Paris. For tree On December 19, Rousseau held a canopy, Weber used "petites cubes," farewell musical soiree for Weber who revealing his incipient interest in cubism planned to leave Paris for the States. as a new way to construct pictorial space. Picasso and his companion Fernande As a whole, Summer displays his assimila- Olivier, as well as Apollinaire and Marie tion of a variety of strategies into an im- Laurencin were among the twenty-five pressive personal style. guests at the musical "Soiree Donnee en Weber claims to have introduced l'Honneur des Adieux de M. Weber"at Picasso to Rousseau and first brought which Weber sang. Two days later, Picasso to Rousseau's studio. Even so, Weber left Paris on the boat-train for Weber did not attend (presumably he was England on his way to the United States. not invited, since he was in Paris at the Rousseau accompanied Weber to the

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 6 Max Weber, Summer, 1909. Oil, 102.2 x 60.6 cm (40 /4x 24 in.). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms superbe J'espere que vous leur verez bientot.

(Dear Mr. Picasso: I regret very much that I did not go to yourplace to see you before leaving, but I hope that I will see you soon. My sincere salutations and much, much success. Max Weber. The Congo things at the British Museum are numerous and superb and I hope thatyou will see them soon.)

The card is the last direct communication between them. Rousseau, who addressed Weber as "dear friend," however, passed on greetings from "Pikasso" [sic] to Weber in a letter from Paris, dated March 20, 1909. Weber clearly anticipated Picasso's "beaucoup, beaucoup" success, but he might not have been pleased if he had realized that he would be so overshadowed by it.'4 7 Henri Matisse, Blue Nude Gare St. Lazare and entreated him, (Souvenir of Biskra), 1907. "N'oubliez pas la nature, Weber."'3 Ceramic tile, 9.4 x 12 cm (3 3/4 x Return to America 4 3/4 in.). Estate of Max Weber From London Weber sent postcards to both Rousseau and Picasso. Weber sent Picasso a postcard of an Assyrian lamassu Despite his limited financial means, in the British Museum ("Winged Figure Weber returned to the United States in and Winged Human Headed Bull from January 1909 with examples of the most Doorway, Khorsabad"). Although diffi- advanced European art. In addition to cult to decipher, the postmark appears to the Picasso Still Life, Weber had acquired be December 28, 1908. The card reveals four paintings and two drawings by his interest in ancient art, which would Rousseau, who also gave him a small soon influence his work. Weber wrote: painted vase, an inscribed photograph of himself in his studio, and his walking Cher Mr. Picasso: stick; photographic reproductions by Je regret beaucoup que; Eugene Druet of works by Matisse, j'eu ne suis pas alee Gauguin, and Cezanne; three lithographs chez vous, pour vous voir by Toulouse-Lautrec; a collection of autantpartir, mais Dutch and Japanese prints; two small j'espere que vous verez African statuettes; and a ceramic tile bien toi. Matisse painted in 1907 with a replica Mes sincere salutations of his celebrated painting Blue Nude et beaucoup beaucoup (Souvenir ofBiskra) (fig. 7).15 du success. Weber was eager to demonstrate the Max Weber lessons that he had learned in Europe. Des choses Congo au museum In the spring of 1909 he organized an British sont numerous et exhibition of his work at the framing

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms were not yet overtly hostile. A review in the New York Morning Sun noted, "He has studied Paul Cezanne, as his fruit, flower and other still life testifies; also the nudes which shock the eyes at first glance ... Henri Matisse has been his model, perhaps idol." The shocking nudes may have included the three women in Summer, as well as a figure study that was probably one of the nudes that Weber painted in Matisse's class. Other figure drawings may also have shocked the reviewer. The critic for the American Art News thought his Adam and Eve (unlocated) was "somewhat primitive in conception and execution."16 Weber's remarkable pictures, however, attracted the attention of the sophisticated artist and connoisseur Arthur B. Davies, who would be the organizing force behind the 1913 Armory Show, which exposed Americans to the breadth of modern art. Davies purchased two unidentified paintings. The sale initiated a supportive friendship and provided Weber with the funds to rent a barn (or possibly a boathouse) at College Point on Long Island for the summer, where he explored the new art forms that he had encountered in Paris. The most intriguing works that Weber produced that summer were a series of paintings of performers with strange fig- ural distortions-harbingers of cubism. The subject of performance had intrigued Weber since his early days in Paris, when he had studied singing in addition to painting. He had made a number of 8 Max Weber, Vaudeville, 1909. shop of Julius G. Haas at 648 Madison sketches in Parisian cabarets dating from Oil, 51 x 36 cm (20 x 14 in.). Avenue in New York. If, as is likely, 1906 that paid homage to works by The Farber Collection, New York Weber exhibited his painting Summer at Toulouse-Lautrec, as did early Parisian the Haas Gallery, it would have been the works by Picasso. Weber said in an earliest painting with cubist elements ex- interview in 1958 that a drawing (unlo- hibited in the United States. The two cated) executed in Paris of a singer per- cursory reviews of the show were less forming Bach's Coffee Cantata was his than enthusiastic, but they indicate that first cubist work.17 Weber's style appeared unusual to Among Weber's performance pictures American viewers. At least the critics are scenes from vaudeville that probably

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms and curious, his painting Vaudeville, later renamed Burlesque II (frontispiece; fig. 8), presents two music hall dancers as if they were dolls, with their arms attached back- wards and a disembodied head resting on a stage at the lower left corner of the painting. It was probably the painting listed in the brochure for Weber's 1911 retrospective at 291.18 Probably Weber's initial experiment in cubist analysis, Vaudeville presents dancers whose planar structure and reconfigured anatomy mimic the nudes in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Weber, however, did not appropriate the gro- tesque, masklike faces that make the Demoiselles so horrifying, but instead chose facial stylizations based on the Etruscan sculptures that he had seen in Italy. Despite his attraction to Picasso's method, throughout 1909 Weber ad- hered to Matisse's use of rough textures and brilliant complementary colors. Thus, Weber combined the structural analysis of cubism and the riotous colors of fauvism with aspects of ancient art to produce a distinctive style. In addition, Weber chose a particularly American subject for Vaudeville. As vaudevillian Edwin Milton Royle noted in an 1899 article, "Vaudeville theatre is an American invention.... The vaudeville theatre belongs to the era of the department store and the short story. It may be a kind of lunch counter art, but then art is so vague and lunch is so real." While performance had been a popular subject for painters since the 1880s, ap- pearing prominently in Picasso's series 9 New York World, April 3, 1910, date from his summer on Long Island. of circus performers from 1905-1906, Sunday April Fool's edition, p. 2M. In the same interview Weber recalled that vaudeville was an especially American Reproduced is Max Weber's Spring Song, Oil (1909), 45.7 x he had seen a burlesque at Coney Island form of popular entertainment. Also, 38.1 cm (18 x 15 in.), formerly in that summer, but he may have confused the stars and stripes in Vaudeville an- the collection of the William H. burlesque with vaudeville, since Coney nounce his intent to create a specifically Lane Foundation Island was the site of a seaside vaudeville American art. 10 Max Weber, Three Crystal Figures, theater. By the mid-1880s, vaudeville Spring Song (fig. 9), later titled Bur- 1910. Oil on board, 31.1 x 22.2 cm (from the French voix de ville, or voices lesque, is a more complex composition (12 /4 x 8 3/4 in.). Estate of Max Weber of the city) dominated popular theatrical than the earlier Vaudeville. It is probably entertainment in New York. Awkward based on Isadora Duncan's interpretation

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/termsI of Mendelssohn's fluttery melody during Song was incomprehensible to critics who her New York concerts in the fall of were scarcely cognizant of the revolution 1909, rather than on vaudeville or bur- in European art, which had been growing lesque shows. While it also recalls the since the 1880s.20 flattened forms, stylized features, and Despite numerous references to anatomical dislocations of Les Demoiselles Matisse in the commentary on the 1910 dAvignon, it is more colloquial, less exhibition, one perceptive critic noted, allegorical, smaller in scale, and more "Many of the most promising of the dynamic than Picasso's grand bordello young Americans have followed one or the other [Cezanne or Matisse] directly, and also have followed Picasso, to whom nature is a series of geometrical designs Weber's writhingfemale nudes that are to be insisted upon in reproduc- suggest the generative and tion at the expense of the anatomical con- animate nature of all lifeforms struction, as one may see in the drawings of Max Weber." In his search to forge a even at the cellular level. In these personal style, Weber, at this point, however, owed debts to all three of the artists studies he seems to search for the mentioned in the review.21 anthropomorphic equivalent to American artist Gelette Burgess's atomic theory. influential article, "The Wild Men of Paris," published in the Architectural Record in May 1910, described and illustrated work by Matisse, Picasso, Braque, picture. Although three separate dancers and other artists whom Burgess had inter- (or pieces of them) are depicted, they are viewed in Paris in 1908. This was the first probably intended to represent a single publication of protocubist French paint- dancer moving across the stage. Even in ings in the United States, although it fol- this early cubist-influenced work, Weber lowed the illustration of Weber's Spring extended Picasso's formalist ideas to in- Song in the New York press by one clude dynamic movement.19 month. Picasso's painting Three Women, Spring Song was the most unusual which was illustrated in the article, influ- painting exhibited in the 1910 pivotal enced Weber's crystal figures.22 exhibition introducing the work of nine Weber's sophisticated crystal figures Younger American Painters at 291. After of 1910-11 (fig. 10) demonstrate a more the exhibition closed, it was singled out cohesive response to cubist theory than for mockery in the Sunday April Fool's his performance pictures. To distance his edition of the New York Morning World: work from that of his Parisian contempo- "Max's study of a lady with four hands raries, he adopted a scientific term to de- and the prickly heat, with her younger scribe his stylistic experimentation and sister in a petticoat and a pink corset in- used a blue crystalline tone, along with terpreting the Spring Song in the middle the beige and gray of analytical cubist distance. It's a scream." The remarks paintings. Weber's writhing female nudes shed light on the derision that greeted suggest the generative and animate nature Weber's early interpretation of the lessons of all life forms even at the cellular level. of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. As the first In these studies he seems to search for the clearly protocubist painting exhibited in anthropomorphic equivalent to atomic America, it is not surprising that Spring theory. The crystal figures, rendered with

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cezannesque directional brush strokes most critics as it was for ordinary and blocky forms, are more sculptural Americans whose ideas about art were than the performance pictures. Weber rooted in the nineteenth century. While traded the earlier brilliant hues for more Weber helped to lead American art out muted tones in his elemental interpreta- of the nineteenth century and into the tion of these female figures, creating more twentieth, he was quickly overshadowed cohesive and unified compositions in by his friend Picasso. Unfavorable com- which there is no dear foreground, middle parisons with the Spanish-born artist that ground, and background. Thus, the crys- began with Weber's 291 exhibition would tal figures are more integrated and fully haunt him throughout his career and developed cubist images. even continue to the present. The commentary on Weber's retro- Yet Weber was instrumental in insti- spective exhibition (which included his gating an exhibition of Picasso's drawings crystal figures) at 291 in January 1911, and watercolors at 291, which opened on published by Alfred Stieglitz in Camera March 28, 1911, two months after the Work, explains his method: close of his own show. Weber's friendship with Picasso and his passionate belief in Form, with him, is not the reproduction his art persuaded Stieglitz to show on canvas of the imageformed on the Picasso's radical work. Picasso's American retina. It is analyzed into its constituent debut of eighty-three drawings and water- parts, its bulk is emphasized, the relation- colors was neither a critical nor a financial ship of lines and masses is explained. Mr. success. Only one drawing was sold, but Weber shows that he possesses thoroughly the the show celebrated Picasso as the origi- technique of drawing and painting. His nator of a challenging new style.25 compositions are logical andforceful, his Critics have subsequently referred to mind is creative, his color is pleasing-and Weber's cubist imagery as derivative and yet his work worries one. It appeals so much dismissed his early work as a feeble imita- to the mind that it challenges criticism, and tion. Yet Weber's cubist paintings bear one cannot quite relax infront of it. This his personal signature in their attention show was a preparation and an introduc- to contemporary American subjects tion to the work ofPaul Cezanne and of rather than the traditional genres the Pablo Picasso, whichfollowed respectively French cubists favored. His series of in March and April.23 urban images from the 1910s, for ex- ample, Chinese Restaurant (see fig. 1) and Traditional critics were slow to under- Rush Hour, New York (see fig. 2), capture stand the value of this new type of paint- the dynamic essence of the modern city. ing, and Weber remembered their In Interior of the Fourth Dimension (fig. vituperative attacks throughout his life. 11) he invigorates cubist forms with In a review of his retrospective exhibition futurist force lines.26 Moreover, Weber's at 291, the New York Globe said, "The extensive exhibition of these works during more the work is strange, crude, awk- the second decade of the twentieth cen- ward, appalling, evidently the more it is tury reinforced the significance of this in favor with him .... Here are travesties revolutionary new mode of pictorial of the human form."24 The notion that construction. In contrast to the cerebral these "travesties" of the human form pleasures of French cubism, Weber's cub- represented a new way of thinking about ist paintings generate emotional exhilara- painting that was conceptual rather than tion through an inventive language of photographic was as unfathomable to visual form.

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 11 Max Weber, Interior of the Fourth After momentous events during the the accolade of being the first American Dimension, 1913. Oil, 75.9 x second decade of the century, including artist to have a retrospective at the 100.3 cm (29 7/8 X 39 /2 in.). National Gallery of Art, World War One, Weber's marriage in Museum of Modern Art in 1930. During Washington D.C., Gift (partial 1916, and the deaths of his parents in that decade, his leadership in modern art and promised) of Natalie Davis 1917 and 1918, his art became more was confirmed when he was chosen to Spingarn in memory of Linda R. Miller and in honor of the lyrical and romantic and lost its edge. direct the national, politically active Fiftieth Anniversary of the By 1920, Weber had abandoned cubism, American Artist's Congress.27 National Gallery of Art as had Picasso shortly thereafter. Despite Although Weber's later expressionist Weber's struggle with critics during paintings made an indelible imprint his cubist decade, his reputation soared on American art, his introduction of during the 1930s and 1940s in response cubism to America following his associa- to his Cezanne-based still-life and tion with Picasso and his dramatic expressionist figure compositions. He American cubist paintings are his most was awarded prizes and honors, such as important legacy.

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Notes

With many thanks to Joy Weber for her 5 Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of a still-life painting, Congo Statuette incomparable long-standing assistance and Alice B. Toklas (New York: Random (1910), subsequently called African to Katherine Manthorne and Barbara House, 1933), p. 67. Weber claimed Sculpture, which was exhibited at 291 Wolanin for their suggestions. that Matisse did not charge students in 1911. After visiting Picasso's studio, for his critiques, but the students rented Weber noted his allegiance to Cezanne's 1 This article represents a rethinking of the room and paid for the models; see formal concerns over Matisse's colorism, ideas originally presented in my essay Weber, The Reminiscences ofMax Weber, in principle if not in practice, in a "Max Weber: The Cubist Decade" in Carol S. Gruber, interviewer (Oral letter dated 9 December 1908 to Max Weber: The Cubist Decade 1910- History Research Office, Columbia Thomas D. Merrill, a friend from 1920, the catalogue for a Weber University, 1958), p. 62. See also Max Minnesota who was also in Paris. The exhibition at the High Museum of Art Weber, "The Matisse Class," seventeen letter is in the Merrill family papers. in Atlanta, published by the High handwritten pages that he read at the Museum in 1991. Matisse symposium at the Museum of 9 Max Weber to Pablo Picasso, 25 Modern Art, 19 November 1951, to October 1908, Archives Picasso, Paris 2 Weber arrived in Paris on the Red accompany a retrospective of Matisse's (author's translation). The painting Star Line ship Krumland. He rented a paintings, Archives of American Art has been in the Weber family since studio at 9 rue Campagne Premiere in (NY59-6, F147-63). he purchased it in 1908. Weber's Montparnasse, a building of artists' daughter, Joy S. Weber, remembers that studios that has become a Parisian 6 Alvin Langdon Coburn to Gertrude the Picasso Still Life hung in the kitchen landmark. He moved several times Stein, 30 April 1913, Archives of throughout her father's life. This during his residence in Paris, but American Art (N69-85, F307); also particular Picasso painting is not remained in Montparnasse. The art reproduced in Donald C. Gallup, The included in either Christian Zervos's historian John Richardson relates that Flowers of Friendship: Letters Written to Pablo Picasso: Volume II-Oeuvres de Louis Vauxcelles, the critic who coined Gertrude Stein (New York: Knopf, 1906-1912 (Paris: Cahiers d'Art, 1942), the term "Les Fauves" in a review of the 1953), p. 78. Gertrude Stein to Pablo or Pierre Daix's Picasso, The Cubist 1905 Salon d'Automne to describe the Picasso, 1919, Archives Picasso, Paris; Years, 1907-1916: A Catalogue Raisonne wild colorism of paintings by Matisse Leonard Folgarait brought this letter of the Paintings and Related Works and his friends, also introduced the term to my attention. (Boston: New York Graphic Society, "cubism" in a review of Georges 1979). In the course of researching his Braque's exhibition at the Kahnweiler 7 Weber's letters to Leo Stein are in the massive multivolume Picasso biography, Gallery in 1908; see Richardson, A Life Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript John Richardson expressed interest of Picasso 1907-1917: The Painter of Library at Yale University (YCAL, MSS in the small still life. Unfortunately, Modern Life, vol. 2 (New York: Random 76, Box 130, No. 2833). Weber's 1908 miscommunication between us led him House, 1996), p. 101. caricatures of Leo Stein appear on a to think that Weber had not purchased sheet of drawings in the Yale University the picture from Picasso. 3 Both of these small ateliers were on Art Gallery and are illustrated in my the rue de la Grande Chaumiere in book Max Weber: American Modern 10 Pablo Picasso to Max Weber, 10 Montparnasse. Established in 1904, (New York: Jewish Museum, 1982), November 1908, Archives of American the year before Weber's arrival in Paris, p. 16. For quote, see Weber, "The Art (NY59-7, F519) (author's La Grande Chaumiere is still a flourish- Matisse Class." translation). ing art school, as is the Academie Julian, on the rue de Dragon, but the Academie 8 Both Weber and his friend the French 11 Scholars of cubism have frequently Colarossi no longer exists. Matisse drew painter Lucien Mainssieux claim that cited Picasso's Les Demoiselles dAvignon from the model at the open Academie de they went to Picasso's studio together. (1907) as the first cubist painting. la Grande Chaumiere when Weber was Weber on one occasion had lunch at William Rubin in his essay "The Genesis there in 1906-1907. the Bateau-Lavoir studio; see Reminis- of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," in Rubin, cences, pp. 199, 234. After visiting Helene Seckel, and Judith Cousins, 4 Max Weber to Abraham Walkowitz, Picasso's studio, Matisse introduced Les Demoiselles dAvignon (New York: 5 January 1908, Archives of American Pablo Picasso to African sculpture in Museum of Modern Art, 1994), Art (NY59-8, F378). The Couvent 1906. The date of Weber's introduction pp. 13-145, convincingly argues that du Sacre Coeur was requisitioned by to African art is undocumented, but he Les Demoiselles d'Avignon represents a the government to establish the Lycee had seen Matisse's collection of wood nascent form of cubism and that cubism Victor Duruy, which it remains today. carvings by the time he met Picasso in was developed in 1908. On Picasso's The loss of the studio in 1911 enabled late 1908. Weber returned to the United studio visit, see Weber, Reminiscences, Matisse to extricate himself from teaching, States with two small, carved African p. 200. A painting titled Summer is which had become a chore for him. figures, one of which he later featured in listed in the brochures for Weber's Haas

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Gallery exhibition in 1909 and his January 1908, Archives of American Art sketchbooks and says that cubism was retrospective at 291 in 1911. It was also (NY59-8, F378). In his Reminiscences, then in its embryonic stage. one of two works that he exhibited at Weber recalled that he bought three the Union League Club in 1911. original Toulouse-Lautrec posters. 18 The short dresses of the music hall (However, there may have been other Sandra Leonard in Henri Rousseau, p. dancers in Weber's painting would have Weber paintings called Summer.) 26, mentions his purchase of Druet been scandalous on the city street in photographs of Cezanne's paintings. 1910. However, the costume was typical 12 Richardson in Life of Picasso, p. 111, The Rousseau photograph, two for dancers of the silent acts that opened surmises that Picasso's banquet honoring paintings, vase, and cane; the Matisse the variety program of the vaudeville Rousseau took place on 21 November tile; the Picasso painting; the Dutch, theater. In 1909 burlesque would not 1908. Art historian Sandra Leonard Japanese, and Toulouse-Lautrec prints; have been the "striptease" that is known comments, "In the letter Rousseau wrote and the African sculpture remain in the by that name today, but was a satire of a to Apollinaire on 4 December 1908, Weber family. The Druet reproductions serious play. Although the lists for he asks him to thank 'Picasso et ces of Matisse, Gauguin, and eighteen Weber's 1910 and 1911 exhibitions at messieurs' for their reception"; see Cezanne paintings are in the collection 291 include paintings called "Vaude- Leonard, Henri Rousseau and Max Weber of the Museum of Modern Art. The ville," the titles were changed to (New York: Richard L. Feigen Gallery, Rousseau drawings and two of the four "Burlesque" when the paintings were 1970), p. 35. paintings were sold after Weber's death; later exhibited, since he may have Rousseau's View ofMalakoffis in the confused vaudeville with burlesque. See 13 This frequently repeated quote appears Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Edwin Milton Royle, "The Vaudeville in Lloyd Goodrich's Max Weber (New The six Rousseau works, photograph, Theatre," Scribner's Magazine 26 (Oct. York: for the Whitney Museum of cane, and painted vase are illustrated 1899): 495. American Art by the Macmillan Co., in Leonard, Henri Rousseau, pp. 61-80, 1949), p. 16. along with facsimilies of the letter from 19 Les Demoiselles d5Avignon is extensively Picasso, letters from Rousseau to Weber, explored as Picasso's bordello picture 14 Weber to Picasso, 28 December 1908, pp. 81-87, and the printed program and an allegory of syphilis in Rubin's Archives Picasso, Paris (author's from Rousseau's soiree for Weber, essay, "Symbolic Theater in the Early translation). Weber's handwriting is pp. 78-79. Studies," in Les Demoiselles d5Avignon, not clear, and the French is scrambled Matisse painted his celebrated Blue pp. 42-91. Although simulated and difficult to translate; the phrase Nude (Souvenir of Biskra) in 1907 movement would become the dominant "vous verez bien toi" may be "vous and exhibited it at the Salon des characteristic of Italian futurism, F. T. venez bien tot." Independants that year. Leo Stein Marinetti's Manifeste du Futurisme Throughout his career Weber was purchased the painting from the exhibit appeared in Le Figaro on 20 February compared unfavorably to Picasso. The and hung it at his home. It is part of 1909, two months after Weber left the similarities between his work and that the Cone Collection of the Baltimore city, and it was unknown to him when of Picasso are first mentioned in reviews Museum of Art; Claribel Cone he painted Spring Song. for the Younger American Painters purchased it in 1926 from the John exhibition. Gallery owner Charles Quinn sale in Paris. 20 "No Faked Names on These Paintings! Daniel wrote to Weber on 27 October A letter to Weber from his friend No Sir-ree! They're by the 'Group of 1914: "My Dear Mr. Weber-Thank Mainssieux on 7 July 1908, Archives of Younger American Painters,' They're you for your letter of October 24th- American Art (NY59-7, F515), refers to the Last Word in Art, Says Mr. Stieglitz, In reference to an Exhibition next year, their exchange of paintings, but it is the Who's Been Exhibiting Them in Fifth would say that we hope to have an only documentation of the trade. Avenue, and Mrs. Whitney Has Bought exhibition of original Matisses and One of'Em. So There!" See New York Picassos, who will no doubt cover the 16 Weber's solo exhibition at the Haas Morning World, clipping, Archives of modern field better than you can. Gallery opened a few days after the close American Art (NY59-6, F370), dated Thanking you for your esteem, of an exhibition of oil sketches by Alfred incorrectly in Weber's hand, Sunday, Sincerely, Charles Daniel." See Maurer and watercolors by John Marin March 14, 1910; the actual date was Archives of American Art (N69-83, at 291. These were the first exhibitions April 3, 1910, in the Metropolitan F46). As late as 1946, a headline in by American artists to introduce the section of the Sunday April Fool's the Minneapolis Star Journal on October innovative flattened forms characteristic edition, p. 2. Not only did Weber 10 read "Weber, Picasso of U.S., Got of modern art. See New York Morning inscribe the wrong dates on the Start in Minnesota," alluding to Weber's Sun, 30 April 1909, Archives of painting, it was also illustrated in the teaching position in Duluth before his American Art (NY59-6, F390); and newspaper as a joke after the exhibition trip to Paris. American Art News, 3 May 1909. had closed.

15 Weber mentioned that he was collecting 17 In Reminiscences, p. 245, Weber 21 "Untitled clipping," New York Ameri- books and reproductions in a letter to discusses this "cubist" drawing of Bach's can, Sunday, 19 March 1910, Archives his friend Abraham Walkowitz, 5 Coffee Cantata from one of his 1906 of American Art (NY59-6, F355).

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This content downloaded from 129.15.14.45 on Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Weber's displeasure with Matisse By spring 1908 when Burgess conducted in 1910, was a groundbreaking surfaced in an antagonistic article called his interviews, Braque and Derain had internationally influential theoretical "Chinese Dolls and Modern Colorists," turned away from fauvism; see Burgess, treatise. Linda Dalrymple Henderson a diatribe against Matisse's fauve "Wild Men,"p. 407. extensively explores Weber's contribu- painting that Stieglitz published in tion to the theoretical basis of cubism Camera Work 31 (uly 1910): 51. 23 Anonymous (Alfred Stieglitz?), "The in The Fourth Dimension and Non- Exhibitions at '291,"' Camera Work 36 Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art 22 Gelette Burgess in "The Wild Men of (Oct. 1911): 29. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Paris," Architectural Record 27, no. 5 1983) and in "Mabel Dodge, Gertrude (May 1910): 400-14, presented the 24 "Arthur Hoeber in the N. Y Globe," Stein, and Max Weber: A Four harbingers of this new style to an republished in Camera Work 36 (Oct. Dimensional Trio," Arts 57, no. 1 educated American audience. Burgess 1911): 31. (Sept. 1982), pp. 106-11. See also illustrated paintings by Matisse, Willard Bohn, "In Pursuit of the Fourth Picasso, Braque, Andre Derain, Jean 25 Picasso's drawing Standing Figure Dimension: Guillaume Apollinaire and Metzinger, and others. Their work (1910), now in the collection of the Max Weber," Arts 54, no. 10 (une showed elements of a style that would Metropolitan Museum of Art, remained 1980): 166-69. be dubbed "cubism" several months in Stieglitz's collection from this after Burgess departed from Paris in exhibition. 27 A 1948 poll of museum professionals the summer of 1908, although the designated Weber second only to John term does not appear in the article. 26 Weber's "The Fourth Dimension from Marin in its selection of the ten best Burgess referred to them all as "Les a Plastic Point of View," published in painters in America; see "Are These Men Fauves," but this designation would Stieglitz's increasingly art-oriented the Best Painters in America Today?" have best suited the work of Matisse. photography journal Camera Work Look (Feb. 1944), p. 44.

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