Village

  • OSSIP ZADKINE
    Village 

  • 46,5 x 56,5 cm
    Purchase by the City of Paris with the funds of Zadkine-Prax bequest, 2002
  • 1920
  • Gouache over graphite

After the war, in 1918, Zadkine, physically and morally exhausted, was invited to Bruniquel, a small village in the Tarn and Garonne, by his friend the painter Henry Ramey. In contact with nature, he found a return to life and creativity there. Here Zadkine painted a collection of gouaches and watercolours of landscapes, Cubist in inspiration, which marked the beginning of his graphic work, including this gouache entitled "Village". Moved by the discovery of old villages and the peaceful countryside which surrounded them, Zadkine took pleasure in creating compositions featuring strongly slanting buildings, roads and hills. There is nothing realistic or stable in these landscapes with arbitrary vanishing lines where he plays with volumes and shapes which he assembles in a very free fashion. The influence of Cubism is evident in this very syncopated way of recomposing reality. It was also in the light-filled atmosphere of Quercy that he discovered the pleasure of colour.