Kvinde med hest, Jean Metzinger, 1912
Jean Metzinger, portraitJean MetzingerFrench, 1883–1956

Kvinde med hest

1912 · Painting

May one see it?

Yes, receiving visitors

Room215

On public display.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

About the painting

Woman with a Horse (French: La Femme au Cheval, also known as L'Écuyère and Kvinde med hest) is a large oil painting created toward the end of 1911, early 1912, by the French artist Jean Metzinger (1883–1956). The work was exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants (20 March – 16 May) in 1912 and the Salon de la Section d'Or, 1912. The following year La Femme au Cheval was reproduced in The Cubist Painters, Aesthetic Meditations by Guillaume Apollinaire (1913).

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The artist has broken down the picture plane into facets, presenting multiple aspects of the subject in succession and/or simultaneously. This concept first pronounced by Metzinger in 1910—since considered a founding principle of Cubism—would soon find its way into the foundations of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics; the fact that a complete description of one and the same subject may require diverse points of view which defy a unique description. The painting was owned by the poet Joseph Houot (known as Jacques Nayral). In 1918 La Femme au Cheval was exhibited at International Kunst, Kleis Kunsthandel, Copenhagen, an exhibition arranged by Herwarth Walden.

It was presumably bought by a Danish collector in 1918. The painting was subsequently sold at auction through art dealer Kai Grunth hos Winkel & Magnussen, auction no. 108, 19 February 1932, lot no. 119. Purchased by Danish physicist Niels Bohr. After his death Woman with Horse was sold by his widow Margrethe Bohr (through Ernest Bohr) to the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. It is now in the Royal Collection of Paintings and Sculpture at the museum.

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Particulars

Accession number
KMS7115

In the catalog

Comings and goings

  1. On view · Sal 215

    SMK · Sep 28, 2026 — now · Verified

  2. Was on view

    SMK · Aug 19, 2026 — Sep 28, 2026 · Verified

Sources

  • SMK
  • Image: SMK — National Gallery of Denmark — © the artist or rights holder
All works

In the same room · Sal 215, SMK — National Gallery of Denmark

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