Portrait of Soldier Lucien Geominne

World War II was a time of great political uncertainty, public fear, and tragedy. Understandably, this affair deeply impacted people’s attitudes and created feelings which they wanted to express. The artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) reacted to the turmoil of the war through his painting titled Portrait of Soldier Lucien Geominne. He completed the work in 1950, five years after the war. In this painting, viewers are left to wonder whether the soldier is alive or dead.

Portrait of Soldier Lucien Geominne, oil on canvas, 25"x24", Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Fleshy Face with Chestnut Hair, Dubuffet, 1951

 The style is very crude and almost childlike with very little detail and an obviously unrealistic distorted form. Dubuffet actually generated a new artistic movement, which he called Art Brut (or Raw Art), that was inspired by the rough, unconventional artworks done by prisoners, mental patients, children, and other untrained artists. He gathered a large collection of those pieces and tried to imitate the techniques in his own works.

Door with Couch Grass, Dubuffet, 1957

Portrait of Soldier Lucien Geominne defies the tradition of portraying soldiers heroically that stemmed from the Greek Classical period. Instead of romanticizing and glorifying, Dubuffet depicted the solider through a more grotesque, negative lens that conveyed the ugliness of war. The viewer does not know whether the soldier in the painting is dead or alive, but it captures the raw unglorified essence of war and the death and destruction that is caused by it.  

• "Art Brut." Collection Online. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/movements/195204&gt.
• "Jean Dubuffet." Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Guggenheim Museum. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/inglese/collections/artisti/dettagli/opere_dett.php?id_art=54&id_opera=634.
• "Jean Dubuffet: Portrait of Soldier Lucien Geominne." Collection Online. Guggenheim. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artwork/14026.