Académie de La Palette

[3] In 1902, with Jacques-Émile Blanche as director of the academy, the concept had been 'any attempt at imitation are now abandoned' [toute tentative d'imitation étant désormais abandonnée].

[4] From 1912, when the Cubists Henri Le Fauconnier and Jean Metzinger took over the direction of the school, the role of the Académie de La Palette as the nexus for the avant-garde at the forefront of the Parisian art scene was secured.

[11] Between 1902 and 1911 Jacques-Émile Blanche directed the academy; his bilingualism attracting many English and North American students seeking exposure to the latest avant-garde tendencies.

According to a notice in the journal La Revue de France et des Pays Français (March–April 1912), Mac Neill had been the director of the school.

[21][22] In the fall of 1912 Liubov Popova and Nadezhda Udaltsova enrolled at La Palette following the advice of Alexandra Exter.

According to Udaltsova, Jean Metzinger encouraged the students to the visit galleries and salons where Cubist works were exhibited.

[5] Metzinger's students at La Palette included Serge Charchoune, Jessica Dismorr, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Varvara Stepanova and Lyubov Popova.

[23] "In November 1912 I went to Paris with Liubov Popova", Udaltsova writes in her memoirs, "Sofia Karentnikova and Vera Petel also travelled with us although they soon returned to Moscow.

Le Fauconnier offered pictorial solutions for the canvas while Metzinger spoke of Picasso’s latest accomplishments.

That was still the time of classical Cubism without all the vie banale – which first appeared in the form of wallpaper and appliqués in the works of Braque.

Advertisement for l'Académie de la Palette in La Revue de France et des pays français March 1912 (Paris)
Paris Montmartre , ca.1900, Le Boulevard de Clichy et le Moulin-Rouge , 18th arrondissement of Paris . The Académie de La Palette , 104 Bld de Clichy, would be located toward the center of the photograph
Paris , ca.1900, Rue de l'Arivée, Avenue du Maine, Montparnasse , 15th arrondissement of Paris
Rue du Val-de-Grâce, Paris, ca.1900
Eugène Carrière , 1899, Le Réveil, Le Baiser à la mère (Her Mother's Kiss) , oil on canvas, 94 x 120 cm, Pushkin Museum , Moscow
Lyubov Popova , 1912-13, Air Man Space (Sitzender weiblicher Akt)
Marc Chagall , 1911-12, Trois heures et demie (Le poète), Half-Past Three (The Poet) Halb vier Uhr , oil on canvas, 195.9 x 144.8 cm, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, Philadelphia Museum of Art