A bright mosaic of colors imitates the crude style of outsider art in Dubuffet's Parisian street scene. In 1923 Dubuffet became interested in the art of the mentally ill, after having read Hans Prinzhorn's Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (Pictures of the Mentally Ill, 1922). Many years later, in 1945, he started collecting these pictures, which he called Art Brut (Raw Art).
Inscription: Signed and dated (along bottom): Février 44 / J. Dubuffet
the artist (from 1944; his gift to Limbour); Georges Limbour, Paris; [Galerie René Drouin, Paris]; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zadok, Milwaukee and New York (by 1953–65; on consignment in September–October 1963 to the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, consignment no. C2713; Zadok sale, Sotheby's, London, June 22, 1965, no. 22, sold to Elkon and Fraser); [Robert Elkon Gallery, New York and Robert Fraser Gallery, London, 1965–67; sold on June 8, 1967 to Eugene Thaw, New York for Gelman]; Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1967–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "The New Decade: 22 European Painters and Sculptors," May 10–August 7, 1955, unnumbered cat. (p. 18; as "Paris Street with Stealthy Pedestrians," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zadok, Milwaukee).
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "The New Decade: 22 European Painters and Sculptors," September 21–October 30, 1955, unnumbered cat.
Los Angeles County Museum. "The New Decade: 22 European Painters and Sculptors," November 21, 1955–January 7, 1956, unnumbered cat.
San Francisco Museum of Art. "The New Decade: 22 European Painters and Sculptors," February 2–March 15, 1956, unnumbered cat.
Milwaukee Art Institute. "The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zadok," December 1956, no. 11 (as "Pedestrians with Furtive Steps").
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Jean Dubuffet: Retrospective Exhibition, 1943–1959," November 10–December 12, 1959, no. 8 (as "Vue de Paris aux piétons furtifs," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zadok, New York).
London. Tate Gallery. "Jean Dubuffet: Paintings," April 23–May 30, 1966, no. 8 (as "Vue de Paris aux piétons furtifs [View of Paris with Stealthy Pedestrians]," lent by the Robert Fraser Gallery, London).
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. "Dubuffet," June 10–August 28, 1966, no. 5 (as "Vue de Paris aux piétons furtifs," February 1954 [sic], lent by the Robert Fraser Gallery, London).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 241).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 265).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895–1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, not in catalogue.
Georges Limbour. Tableau bon levain à vous de cuire la pâte: L'Art Brut de Jean Dubuffet. New York, 1953, p. 99, ill. p. 28 (color), dates it 1943 and locates it in the collection of Charles Zadok, Milwaukee.
Michel Ragon. "Jean Dubuffet." Cimaise, 5, (January–February 1958), ill. p. 15, lists it in the collection of G. Limbour.
Alan Bowness. Jean Dubuffet: Paintings. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1966, pp. 18, 20, no. 8, ill.
Sabine Rewald inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 240–42, 298, ill. (color and bw).
William S. Lieberman inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 16.
Max Loreau. Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet. Vol. 1, Marionnettes de la ville et de la campagne. Rev. ed. (1st ed., 1966). Paris, 1993, p. 283, no. 225, ill. p. 154.
Grace Glueck. "When One City Was the Heart of Art's Youth." New York Times (March 10, 2000), p. E39.
Roberta Smith. "In a Brash Yet Refined School, Everyone Belongs Together." New York Times (June 15, 2001), p. E37.
Julien Dieudonné and Marianne Jakobi, ed. Jean Dubuffet, Jean Paulhan: Correspondance 1944–1968. [Paris], 2003, p. 55 n. 1, p. 822.
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