Les Jouets
Artist
Lucie Cousturier
(French, 1876 - 1925)
Date1903
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 39 1/2 x 26 in. (100.3 x 66 cm)
Overall, Frame: 47 1/2 x 34 in. (120.7 x 86.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 47 1/2 x 34 in. (120.7 x 86.4 cm)
ClassificationsModern art
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.2223
On View
On viewLabel TextLucie Cousturier French (1876-1925) Les Jouets (The Toys), 1903 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2223 A shimmering web of distinct color strokes, Lucie Cousturier's still life of children's toys proclaims her stylistic allegiance to Neo-Impressionism. That avant-garde aesthetic was founded in Paris in 1886 by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. They worked to reform the free and open painting technique of the Impressionists with a more disciplined application of tight, tiny touches of prismatic color. Cousturier studied with Signac around 1900 and was one of only a handful of women artists to adopt the new style. Unlike Seurat, whose Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is a monumental example of the style, Cousturier's subjects were modest and intimate representations of life in southern France on the Mediterranean Coast. Cousturier's devotion to the movement was profound. She regularly exhibited her work with other Neo-Impressionists in Paris and Brussels, wrote important catalogues on Seurat and Signac, and acquired Seurat's famed Grande Jatte, which she kept in her studio until her death.
