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The Large Glass; The Bride Stripped bare by her Bachelors Even. 1915/23. Oil, vanish, lead foil, lead wire and dust in two glass plates mounted with aluminum, wood and steel frames. 272.5 x 175.8 cm. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

The Large Glass

"The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even." Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

by Derek Dey © November 2000 / May 2005.

Marcel Duchamp began his academic studies at the age 10 at Cornielle and took drawing lessons from Philippe Zacharie. Gaston, a near relative, also influenced Duchamp at this time but it was Raymond Duchamp-Villon who was considered the true genius of the family. Nevertheless, Duchamp took the plunge and decided to become an artist, this by 1900. His first painting was a landscape and with the presence of water in the work, we are introduced to two recurring themes in Duchamp's work.

By this time Duchamp was already characterized as being expressionless and was soon to be described as one who carried only enough to sustain his basic needs. In 1904 Duchamp graduated and quickly became a reactionary against impressionist influence; this according to his own statements. Despite trying and failing the entry exam for the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Duchamp proclaimed he had no ambitions at this time preferring to be left alone to do what he liked. He was now in Mont Martin. This area, a magnet for artists, had already been occupied by Picasso who moved there in 1900 along with his friend Carlos Cassagemas.

In 1901 Cassagemas killed himself leaving some suspicion Picasso had betrayed him at a delicate and crucial moment in his life, and was in part to blame. Picasso's blue period followed, marked by guilt and depression. Duchamp, reportedly, avoided Picasso, instead playing pool at a local cafe in the mornings. He soon took up drawing studies at Julian.

Soon afterwards Duchamp was working in a print shop in Rouen. By October of 1906 Duchamp was in Paris living on 150 Francs a month sent by his father. He had tried to dodge the military but was still obliged to perform one year of service. Still, in Paris he saw much Juan Gris and exhibited some drawings. Whilst experimenting with Fauvism he moved from Montmarte to Neuilly and by 1909 he had exhibited three paintings. A nude study, sold even though his palette was now quite restrained. The buyer was the dancer, Isadora Duncan. His lifestyle was, by now, dissolute, including all-night adventures, dining, drinking and visits to a brothel on the Rue Pigalle. He had a model at this time but at the age of 23 he now carried the air of a confirmed bachelor.

With Cezanne being heralded as 'an antidote' to Impressionism at this time and with x-rays now available to the public, Duchamp embarked on an ambitious work, 'The Chess Game.’ The Chess Game, pointed to his future. Duchamp was still swinging from one style to another yet moving relentlessly on. He, himself, called this time 'his swimming lessons.’ The early indulgences the parents had shown him turned him towards self-interest.

The remoteness from his mother had given him a distance and alienation, particularly, from the feminine and brought him to a sexuality separated from mature emotional commitment. This in turn was colored by intellectual thought and fantasy. Indeed, 'The Chess Game' of 1910 was often thought to contain just such a sense of isolated reverie even though it pointed to family connections. Duchamp's work of 1911 carries some Cubist influence but unlike Picasso and Braque who symbiotically created a new pictorial language of Cubism in isolation, Duchamp sought his own way claiming he had no wish to become, "An interpreter of some theory.” Odilon Redon is also thought to have been an influence at this time (see Paradise and Young Girl and Man in Spring both 1911) yet Duchamp already spoke contemptuously of, “Retinal art.”

Theoretical ideas increasingly influenced both the Cubists and Duchamp. The work of H.G. Wells had added the notion of the fourth dimension for his consideration. This fourth dimension came to stand for some kind of transcendental reality, which alluded to the perfect. Added to this, were themes of movement and change and a particular icon, which became central to Duchamp's oeuvre. This was a haughty female figure whose motion across the picture plane stripped her of her dignity. It seems reasonable to suppose, here was Duchamp's notion of the feminine stripped and humiliated by a process of resentment which might have been placed, just as easily, at his own mothers feet. (continued)

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