Landscape 1917

Jean Metzinger made this landscape painting with oil, working with the visual language of Cubism, a style that fragments and reassembles the world. The paint is applied in distinct geometric planes of colour, with only slight variations in tone and texture. Look at the way Metzinger renders the green field as a flat plane with tiny vertical brushstrokes. He doesn’t attempt to mimic the appearance of grass, but rather, constructs an idea of a field through colour and texture. I wonder what kind of brushes he used? It's also interesting how the text in the bottom right-hand corner adds a layer of visual intrigue. Metzinger’s work reminds me of Juan Gris, another Cubist painter who explored similar themes of fragmentation and representation. Both artists embraced the ambiguity and multiple interpretations of Cubism.