Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger was born on 24 June 1883 in Nantes, France. He studied art at the Académie Cours Cambronne in Nantes before moving to Paris in 1903, funded by the sale of three works he submitted to the Salon des Indépendants that year. Metzinger would exhibit at the first Salon d’Automne (1903) and at the Galerie Berthe Weill in subsequent years, through which he met Robert Delaunay, a close friend. By 1903, Metzinger was painting a Neo-Impressionist manner, composing paintings with a tessellation of broad, mosaic-like brushstrokes and vivid colours. In 1908, he would meet Max Jacob, through which Metzinger would become close with Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Exhibiting alongside both Braque and Picasso at Galerie Berthe Weill and Galerie Wilhelm Uhde, Metzinger’s interest turned from colour and Divisionism towards Cubism, which he had embraced fully by 1910; Metzinger was the first to note Picasso and Braque’s dismissal of traditional perspective in an article in Pan (1910).
Metzinger participated in the controversial Salle 41 at the Salon des Indépendants in 1911, exhibiting alongside Delaunay, Albert Gleizes, and Fernand Léger. In 1912, with Gleizes, he set out the theoretical foundation for Cubism in Du cubisme. He also founded the Section d’Or and exhibited alongside Léger, Gleizes, Juan Gris and others from the group at the Galerie de la Boétie, Paris. Metzinger exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1913, and would continue to exhibit in the principal Parisian salons for the rest of his career. He also exhibited in New York and at Der Sturm Gallery, Berlin, that year.
In 1916, Metzinger signed an exclusive contract with Léonce Rosenberg, who would exhibit Metzinger’s work at his Galerie de l’Effort Moderne. After serving in the army during the First World War, he returned to Paris in 1919. Metzinger’s attention turned towards nature in the 1920s, though he was still resolutely dedicated to Cubism. He exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, London, in 1930 and the Hanover Gallery, London, in 1932. Metzinger continued to paint in the strict, formally constructive style until his death on 3 November 1956, in Paris.
Metzinger’s work can be found in the following selected international collections: the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Tate Collection, London.
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