The Dinner Table (La Table service)

Jacques Villon

1913

A drypoint print of a Cubist still life in which the artist breaks plates, cups, and fruit into interlocking planes to present multiple viewpoints at once.

You first notice a shimmering web of fine, rhythmic lines that carve everyday tableware into overlapping curved and angular facets, so the familiar scene reads like a precise, vibrating collage of shapes and shadows.

Made in 1913, the work shows how Cubist artists translated their radical shift in perception into printmaking, helping establish engraving and drypoint as vehicles for modernist experimentation with form and perspective.

Palette

Art Terms

Cubism Drypoint Intaglio Still life Print Modern art

Exhibitions

Jacques Villon: His Graphic Art

1953

Women of the Nineties: Fin-de-Siècle Prints

1979

French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection

1952

The Mrs. Adele R. Levy Collection: A Memorial Exhibition

1961