Interior with a Double Bass

Catalogue entry

Louis Marcoussis 1878-1941

T00244 Intérieur à la Contrebasse (Interior with a Double-Bass) 1929

Inscribed 'Marcoussis 29' b.l.
Oil on canvas, 19 1/2 x 23 7/8 (49.5 x 60.5)
Bequeathed by E.C. Gregory 1959
Prov: With Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris (purchased from the artist); with Reid and Lefevre, London, 1930; Miss Jane Drew, London, c.1943; E.C. Gregory, London
Exh: The Cubist Spirit in its Time, London Gallery, London, March-May 1947 (54); 40 Years of Modern Art, ICA, Academy Hall, London, February-March 1948 (52); Seventeen Collectors, Tate Gallery, March-April 1952 (44); The Gregory Collection, ICA, London, July-August 1959 (20); Gregory Memorial Exhibition, Leeds City Art Gallery, March-April 1960 (17, repr.)
Lit: Jean Lafranchis, Marcoussis: sa Vie, son Oeuvre (Paris 1961), No. P.175, pp.136 repr. and 267 repr. as 'Intérieur à la Contrebasse'
Repr: Jean Cassou, Marcoussis (Paris 1930), p.51 as 'Intérieur'; Cahiers d'Art, 1930, p.19

The theme of an interior with a half-open door seen in conjunction with a musical instrument or other still-life objects occurs a number of times in Marcoussis' works of 1928-30. Here the principal object is a double-bass leaning against a small table; it is on the left, in the foreground, and a half-open doorway is on the right. Jean Lafranchis, who draws attention to Marcoussis' introduction at this period in certain of his works of a note of mystery akin to that of poems by his friends like Pierre Reverdy, writes of this work: 'Behind this door we see nothing, there is total darkness, darkness of such a presence that it seems to burst out into the room behind the table'.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.485-6, reproduced p.485

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