The Street Enters the House
Encyclopedia
The Street Enters the House (La Strada Entra Nella Casa) is an oil on canvas
painting by Italian artist Umberto Boccioni
. Painted in the Futurist
style, the work centres around a woman on a balcony in front of a busy street, with the sounds of the activity below portrayed as a riot of shapes and colours. The first public display of The Street Enters the House was in Paris in 1912, and it is now housed in the Sprengel Museum
in Hanover, Germany
.
's The Black Cat or The Obsessive Dancer, for example.) However, after listening to second-hand descriptions of new works by Cubist
artists such as Picasso
and Braque
, Boccioni and his compatriots began adopting their technique of using angular lines and planes to capture multiple viewpoints in a two-dimensional image. At the same time, the movement shifted their attention from depiction of internal stimuli to external sensory information such as sound and smell.
Boccioni, who only a year earlier had coauthored the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters with Giacomo Balla
and Carlo Carra
, began a series of works based on modern urbanism. The first, The City Rises, described the construction of a new city, and the sights and sounds one would see of men and horses at work. Boccioni described it as a "great synthesis of labour, light, and movement." Later works included The Forces of the Street, The Street Enters the House, Simultaneity of Vision, and Street-pavers and A Study of a Woman Among Buildings.
The identity of the woman in The Street Enters the House is the subject of some debate. While several scholars think her anonymous, Boccioni had a history of employing the women of his family as models. This has led some to the conclusion that the figure is Boccioni's mother, and use the depiction in The Street Enters the House as evidence of Boccioni's changing view of women in general and mothers in particular.
The painting in general showcases Boccioni's evolution from a Neoimpressionist style to one more aligned with the ideals of Cubism, and his increasing fascination with scientific terminology. In his catalogue description for The Street Enters the House, Boccioni stated: "The principles of Roentgen rays
is applied to the work, allowing the personages to be studied from all sides, objects both at the front and the back are in the painter's memory." With the use of Cubist techniques, Boccioni keeps all elements in both the foreground and background "rushing into the window at the same time" He also weaves in references to his earlier works. See for example, the visual pun of the horse's appearance on the woman's buttock when compared with a line from his earlier Manifesto: "How often have we seen upon the cheek of the person with whom we are talking the horse which passes at the end of the street."
's Sturm Gallery in Berlin, and finally to the Sackville Gallery in London. The painting, along with several others, was purchased by Albert Borchardt in 1913, who later donated it to the Sprengel Museum
in Hanover, Germany. It remains there to this day.
Oil on Canvas
Oil on Canvas is a live album by the British band Japan, released in 1983 by Virgin Records. Although it is a live recording of their established material, the album also contains three new studio tracks , recorded separately by Sylvian, Sylvian/Jansen and Barbieri respectively...
painting by Italian artist Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni was an Italian painter and sculptor. Like other Futurists, his work centered on the portrayal of movement , speed, and technology. He was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.-Biography:...
. Painted in the Futurist
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
style, the work centres around a woman on a balcony in front of a busy street, with the sounds of the activity below portrayed as a riot of shapes and colours. The first public display of The Street Enters the House was in Paris in 1912, and it is now housed in the Sprengel Museum
Sprengel Museum
The Sprengel Museum in Hanover houses one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building designed by Peter and Ursula Trint and Dieter Quast , adjacent to the Maschsee...
in Hanover, Germany
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
.
Background
Prior to 1910, works by the Futurist movement, of which Boccioni was a central figure, had primarily focused on depicting emotion and multiple states of mind in a somewhat Neoimpressionistic style (see SeveriniGino Severini
Gino Severini , was an Italian painter and a leading member of the Futurist movement. For much of his life he divided his time between Paris and Rome. He was associated with neo-classicism and the "return to order" in the decade after the First World War. During his career he worked in a variety of...
's The Black Cat or The Obsessive Dancer, for example.) However, after listening to second-hand descriptions of new works by Cubist
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
artists such as Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
and Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Boccioni and his compatriots began adopting their technique of using angular lines and planes to capture multiple viewpoints in a two-dimensional image. At the same time, the movement shifted their attention from depiction of internal stimuli to external sensory information such as sound and smell.
Boccioni, who only a year earlier had coauthored the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters with Giacomo Balla
Giacomo Balla
Giacomo Balla was an Italian painter.-Biography:Born in Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy, the son of an industrial chemist, as a child Giacomo Balla studied music....
and Carlo Carra
Carlo Carrà
Carlo Carrà was an Italian painter, a leading figure of the Futurist movement that flourished in Italy during the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to his many paintings, he wrote a number of books concerning art. He taught for many years in the city of Milan.-Biography:Carrà was born in...
, began a series of works based on modern urbanism. The first, The City Rises, described the construction of a new city, and the sights and sounds one would see of men and horses at work. Boccioni described it as a "great synthesis of labour, light, and movement." Later works included The Forces of the Street, The Street Enters the House, Simultaneity of Vision, and Street-pavers and A Study of a Woman Among Buildings.
Composition and interpretation
The central figure, viewed from behind and above, is a woman dressed in blue and white. From a balcony, she is overlooking a busy street scene, described in a riot of colours, lines, and angles. On the road in front of the woman, workers lift poles to form the walls of a new building, a pile of bricks surrounding them. On every side of this construction, white and blue houses lean into the street. From the balconies of two of these, we see a pair of other figures peering down into the road. A line of horses flies past the foreground.The identity of the woman in The Street Enters the House is the subject of some debate. While several scholars think her anonymous, Boccioni had a history of employing the women of his family as models. This has led some to the conclusion that the figure is Boccioni's mother, and use the depiction in The Street Enters the House as evidence of Boccioni's changing view of women in general and mothers in particular.
The painting in general showcases Boccioni's evolution from a Neoimpressionist style to one more aligned with the ideals of Cubism, and his increasing fascination with scientific terminology. In his catalogue description for The Street Enters the House, Boccioni stated: "The principles of Roentgen rays
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
is applied to the work, allowing the personages to be studied from all sides, objects both at the front and the back are in the painter's memory." With the use of Cubist techniques, Boccioni keeps all elements in both the foreground and background "rushing into the window at the same time" He also weaves in references to his earlier works. See for example, the visual pun of the horse's appearance on the woman's buttock when compared with a line from his earlier Manifesto: "How often have we seen upon the cheek of the person with whom we are talking the horse which passes at the end of the street."
Provenance
The Street Enters The House was completed after Boccioni's return from Paris in November 1911. Its first public display was at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris as part of the first Futurist exhibition. The exhibition featured works by Boccioni, Carra, and Severini, among others. It remained at Bernheim-Jeune from 5 to 24 February 1912, before moving on to Herwarth WaldenHerwarth Walden
Herwarth Walden was a German Expressionist artist and art expert in many disciplines...
's Sturm Gallery in Berlin, and finally to the Sackville Gallery in London. The painting, along with several others, was purchased by Albert Borchardt in 1913, who later donated it to the Sprengel Museum
Sprengel Museum
The Sprengel Museum in Hanover houses one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building designed by Peter and Ursula Trint and Dieter Quast , adjacent to the Maschsee...
in Hanover, Germany. It remains there to this day.