Max Weber (1881-1961)

Figures in a Landscape, is a work from Max Weber's crucial transitive period from 1909 to 1912, which "marked the end of his apprenticeship and his embarkation on the mature phase of his career." (P. North, Max Weber: The Cubist Decade 1910-1920, Atlanta, Georgia, 1991, p. 26) The present work exhibits the continuing influence of primitive art on Weber's work as well as his proto-Cubist exploration of capturing forms in various stages of motion. Indeed, the contorted, angular figures and flattened space contain the seed of his Cubist exploration, which he would continue to develop and would lead to the most prolific and successful decade of his career. Figures in a Landscape represents an integral stage in Weber's transition from his student years in Europe to the development of his mature style.

Weber continued to explore the theme of architectonic figures in an amorphic landscape in Order Out of Chaos (1912, Lionel Kelly, England) a work of similar medium and palette.