Hermine David – Street Musicians In Cuba, C. 1917-1918 - Charcoal

Hermine David (1886-1970)
Street musicians in Cuba, 1917 or 1918
charcoal on paper
18 x 24.5 cm
signature stamp lower right, partially faded

Very good condition

Carefully framed, under glass
Dimensions with frame: 35.5 x 42 cm

Bibliography: “Hermine David : peintre-graveur de l’École de Paris”, 2006, our drawing reproduced p. 62

* * *

During a long trip to the American continent, Hermine David filled several notebooks with drawings and watercolors, souvenirs of New Orleans, Florida, Mexico and Cuba. This perfectly preserved sheet is part of her memories of Havana : a black and white composition, sonorous and rhythmic, which also leaves room for the freedom of improvisation, notably for the background which mixes, in a few strokes, vegetation and architecture. Hermine David, traveling to Cuba twice with her companion Jules Pascin, in 1917 and 1918, stopped for a moment in the street, observed and captured this scene, the time of a song : the musicians have attracted her attention as much as that of the passersby.

* * *

According to the reference study on Hermine David, published in 2006, and in which our drawing is reproduced, we can retrace the travels of the artist couple across the American continent. Leaving Paris at the first stirrings of the world conflict, in mid-July 1914, the Pascin/David couple first left for London and then embarked for New York, in October 1914 for Pascin, and in the spring of 1915 for Hermine. This would be their home city for the next few years: New York already concentrated, between 1915 and 1920, the new impetus of modernity in art.

Pascin's first trip to Cuba, alone, dates from 1915 and the two trips of the Pascin/David couple to Cuba are dated from the spring of 1917, and the fall of 1918.

To situate this scene, one could hesitate between New Orleans and Cuba, both for the presence of music everywhere in the streets as well as for the elegance of the silhouettes that are represented, both musicians and listeners. Certain details nevertheless allow us to situate this scene in Cuba, notably the choice of musical instruments and the humble, even poor, clothing of the street children. The birth of jazz in New Orleans involved more wind instruments, clarinets, trombones and percussion, while Cuban music was notably more oriented towards guitars, as here, and sometimes some percussion.

Hermine David's inventions in the layout of her compositions are always very interesting. Here, the empty space she has kept on the right side of the sheet allows the viewer's attention and gaze to be focused more on the musicians.

The background is quickly laid out, as if the artist were being carried away by both the music and the overall movement of her composition. Several graphic elements by Hermine David echo Pascin's technique at this time in their career. They certainly drew together, or perhaps Hermine always wanted to compete in invention and audacity with her companion (see comparisons).  We also sense some echoes of the German school in this drawing, notably Otto Mueller and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

By traveling so freely, by seeking out subjects so different from what European artists most often showed, Hermine David explores modernity simply by capturing what she sees.

A drawing that is over a hundred years old and remains strikingly pure, elegant, and lively. The black and white of a score, the purity of charcoal on white paper, which leaves the freedom to imagine the colors, as much as the melodies.