Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

Jacqueline Matisse Monnier and the Association Marcel Duchamp have confirmed the authenticity of this work.

This rare and early figure drawing by Duchamp was gifted to the artist’s longtime friend, Gustave Candel in 1909. Candel and Duchamp first met in the fall of 1904 when the artist moved to Paris to stay with his elder brother, Jacques Villon, who lived down the street from the Candel family. Candel and Duchamp would remain lifelong friends. After World War I, Candel became a well-known and successful wholesale cheese merchant with a shop in Les Halles. In the spring of 1941, Candel traveled between the occupied and free zones of Paris on business and thus was able to obtain a temporary permit or ausweis, from the Germans. It was thanks to this special permit that Duchamp was able to protect the various components of his Boîte en valise for safe transport out of France as well as acquire an exit visa to leave the country for the United States. The Candel family amassed a large collection of works by the artist including portraits of Candel's mother and father, both of which were recently gifted to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.