Study for "L'accord des couleurs"
c. 1918
Medium
watercolor over graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 48.26 × 30.48 cm (19 × 12 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee
Accession Number
2019.45.16
Art Historical Context
František Kupka, pioneering Czech artist and one of the unsung heroes of early 20th-century abstraction, created this *Study for "L'accord couleurs"* around 1918. By this time, Kupka had fully embraced non-objective art, influenced byism, Futurism, and his own fascination with color theory and musical analogies. The title evokes the "harmony of colors," reflecting his belief that hues could resonate like notes in a symphony—a radical idea amid the chaos of World War I, when modernism sought new forms of expression beyond representation. Executed in watercolor over graphite on wove paper (48.2...