Gino SeveriniItalian, 1883–1966Paris Subway, Ferris Wheel and Eiffel Tower
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Paris Subway, Ferris Wheel and Eiffel Tower” now? Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Cleveland, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Gino Severini joined the Futurist movement, which emphasized the dynamism, movement, and energy of the modern city, in 1910. He began to depict modern modes of transportation and developed an interest in machines and speed. This pastel was created after Severini visited Paris, in 1911, where he admired technological advances such as the Eiffel Tower and the Métro, the city's relatively new public transportation system. Here, he suggests velocity through shifting planes and viewpoints and abruptly juxtaposing word and image.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 1942.249
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art — © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In the life of Gino Severini
The whole lifefrom 1910
Big-city nightlife becomes his main theme
From 1910 the main theme of his paintings is the nightlife of the big city, in which signs of Futurism — dynamism and sharpness of image — can be seen. The machine attracts him less than his fellow Futurists, and he most often chooses the figure of the dancer to express the Futurist theories of dynamism.
February – April 1910
Signs the manifestos of Futurist painting
Invited by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Boccioni to join the Futurist movement, he co-signs, with Balla, Boccioni, Carlo Carrà and Luigi Russolo, the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters (February 1910) and the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting (April of the same year).
1911
The link between Paris and the Futurists
An important link between artists in France and Italy, he comes into contact with Cubism before his Futurist colleagues; after a visit to Paris in 1911 the Italian Futurists adopt a sort of Cubism, which gives them a means of analysing energy in paintings and expressing dynamism.
February 1912
First Futurist exhibition outside Italy
He helps to organize the first Futurist exhibition outside Italy, at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris, and later takes part in Futurist shows in Europe and the United States. The Futurists were pleased with the response, but, as he later recalled, influential critics, notably Apollinaire, mocked them for their pretensions, their ignorance of the main currents of modern art and their provincialism — and in time Severini came to agree with Apollinaire.
1913
Solo exhibitions in London and Berlin
In 1913 his solo exhibitions are held at the Marlborough Gallery in London (the first of his career) and at Der Sturm in Berlin.
August 1913
Married: Jeanne Fort
.png?width=1280)
