The port of Bordeaux
(Le Port de Bordeaux)
(c. 1914)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
65.5 × 92.3 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Eugénie Crawford Bequest, 2009
© André Lhote/ADAGP, Paris. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
The Bordeaux-born artist André Lhote painted the port of his hometown many times. Although Lhote was a member of the Parisian and Cubist-inclined Section d’Or group in 1912, his work was often regarded as too decorative by his avant-garde peers. The year in which this port scene was painted, 1914, was a pivotal moment for Cubism, as the interest in flatness first explored by Picasso, Braque, Léger and Gris began to wane. By contrast, Lhote’s interest in flatness grew, as seen here in the symphony of angular shapes and flat, unmodulated surfaces. Also notable is the painting’s ‘composition within a composition’, which relates to Lhote’s theories of the golden section. This ancient formula for subdividing a rectangle was taught by Lhote to the Australian artist Grace Crowley, who attended his popular Paris academy in the 1920s.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Paris, France
Inscription
inscribed in red paint u.r.: A. LHOTE.
Accession Number
2009.177
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Cityscapes Marines and Seascapes
Subjects (specific)
boats Bordeaux (inhabited place) flat (form attributes) France (nation) ports (settlements) ships spars (watercraft components) waterfronts
Movements
Cubism