Title: Au Vélodrome
Description: Au Vélodrome, also known as At the Cycle-Race Track and Le cycliste, is a painting by the French artist and theorist Jean Metzinger. The work illustrates the final meters of the Paris–Roubaix race, and portrays its 1912 winner Charles Crupelandt. Metzinger's painting is the first in Modernist art to represent a specific sporting event and its champion. Au Vélodrome remained in Metzinger's atelier until it was shipped to New York, where it was shown to the public for the first time, 8 March to 3 April, at the Third Exhibition of Contemporary French Art, Carstairs (Carroll) Gallery—with works by Pach, Gleizes, Picasso, de la Fresnaye, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Derain, Duchamp, Duchamp-Villon and Villon. On 10 February 1916 the American collector John Quinn acquired Au Vélodrome and the Racing Cyclist. Both works by Metzinger had been on view in the Carroll Galleries exhibition. The acquisition was preceded by a lively correspondence between Quinn, the gallery manager Harriet Bryant, and the artist's brother Maurice Metzinger. In 1927 an exhibition and sale of Quinn's art collection took place in New York City. The sale was conducted by Otto Bernet and Hiram H. Parke at the American Art Galleries. A catalogue was published for the occasion by the American Art Association. Au Vélodrome (n. 266 of the catalogue) was purchased at the sale for $70 by American art dealer and publisher J. B. Neumann. Peggy Guggenheim purchased the painting from Neumann in 1945 and forms part of the permanent collection of her museum in Venice; Peggy Guggenheim Collection. From 9 June to 16 September 2012 the painting was the subject of an exhibition in Venice entitled Cycling, Cubo‐Futurism and the 4th Dimension. Jean Metzinger’s "At the Cycle‐Race Track".
Author(s): Jean Metzinger