Automobile Tires

Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Pène du Bois's early training with Robert Henri stimulated his interest in painting scenes of contemporary life. Unlike Henri, however, he was not concerned with picturing the urban poor and specialized in revealing the foibles of high-society men and women, portraying them in the elegant milieus of private clubs and smart cafés. Many of Pène du Bois's paintings contain a strikingly humorous element of satire. Here the elevated vantage point reduces the figures in their rounded plush seats to tubular shapes reminiscent of the automobile tires of the painting's title, prompting us to wonder whether the two should be interpreted to be as dull and spiritually lifeless as a pair of rubber tires.
Caption
Guy Pène du Bois (American, 1884–1958). Automobile Tires, 1915. Oil on panel, 19 7/8 × 15 in. (50.5 × 38.1 cm) frame: 25 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (64.8 × 52.1 × 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Chester Dale, 63.148.2. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Automobile Tires
Date
1915
Medium
Oil on panel
Classification
Dimensions
19 7/8 × 15 in. (50.5 × 38.1 cm) frame: 25 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (64.8 × 52.1 × 3.8 cm)
Signatures
Signed and dated lower right: "Guy Pene du Bois '15"
Inscriptions
Signed verso in pen, partially obscured by label: "Automobile . . . / Guy Pene d. . . / 1915"
Credit Line
Gift of Chester Dale
Accession Number
63.148.2
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
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