Coucher de soleil no. 1
| Coucher de soleil no. 1 | |
|---|---|
| English: Sunset No. 1 | |
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|
| Artist | Jean Metzinger |
| Year | c. 1906 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 72.5 cm × 100 cm (22.5 in × 39.25 in) |
| Location | Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo |
| Website | kmm |
Coucher de soleil no. 1 (also called Landscape, Paysage, Landschap, or Sunset No. 1) is an oil painting created circa 1906 by the French artist and theorist Jean Metzinger (1883–1956). Coucher de soleil no. 1 is a work executed in a mosaic-like Divisionist style with a Fauve palette. The reverberating image of the sun in Metzinger's painting is an homage to the decomposition of spectral light at the core of Neo-Impressionist color theory.
Coucher de soleil was exhibited in Paris during the spring of 1907 at the Salon des Indépendants (n. 3457), along with Bacchante and four other works by Metzinger.
The painting had been in the collection of Helene Kröller-Müller since 1921 (or prior), and is currently at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.
Coucher de soleil no. 1 is an oil painting on canvas in a horizontal format with dimensions 72.5 x 100 cm (28.5 by 39.25 in), signed J.Metzinger (lower right), and titled on the verso "Coucher de soleil no. 1". Also on the verso is another painting by Metzinger representing a river scene with ships. The work represents two nude women relaxing in a lush Mediterranean landscape with semi-tropical vegetation, hills, trees, a body of water and a radiating setting sun beyond. The plants to the lower left resemble the Agave, a species found in the south of France, Spain and Greece. "Agave" is also the name of three characters in Greek mythology:
The two nudes appear to play a secondary role in the overall composition due to their small size. But their prominent location in the foreground and the provocative nature of public nudity propels them to a position that cannot be ignored.
In this luscious setting—as in Luxe, Calme et Volupté by Henri Matisse—Metzinger makes use all the colors in the spectrum of visible light. Unlike Matisse's work, Metzinger's brushstrokes are large, forming a mosaic-like lattice of squares or cubes of similar size and shape throughout, juxtaposed in a wide variety of angles relative to one another, creating an overall rhythm that would otherwise not be present.
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