Plumeuse
1944
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View on museum website →Medium
lithograph on handmade Auvergne paper
Dimensions
sheet: 32 x 25 cm (12 5/8 x 9 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Michael Marsh
Accession Number
1985.74.1
Art Historical Context
Jean Dubuffet's *Plumeuse* (1944) is a captivating lithograph on handmade Auvergne paper, measuring 32 x 25 cm. Created during the final turbulent months of World War II in occupied France, this intimate print exemplifies Dubuffet's early fascination with raw, unpolished expression. The title, translating to "feather-plucker," evokes a humble, everyday figure, rendered with the artist's signature crude lines and earthy vitality that would soon define his pioneering Art Brut movement—celebrating art outside conventional norms. Lithography allowed Dubuffet to explore texture and spontaneity on ...
About the Artist
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) was a French painter and sculptor born into a prosperous family of wholesale wine merchants in Le Havre. His early life revolved around this bourgeois world, with childhood friendships among writers like Raymond Queneau and Georges Limbour shaping his intellectual circle. In 1918, at age 17, he moved to Paris to study painting at the Académie Julian but departed after jus...