  
  About the Artwork
  
  
  Writing in 1913 to his friend the American art historian Walter Pach, Raymond Duchamp-Villon declared, "The power of the machine imposes itself upon us and we can scarcely conceive living bodies without it." Clearly the artist had this idea in mind as he began to reinterpret traditional equestrian portraits, a symbol of power, for the modern era. Duchamp-Villon&acirc;&#128;&#153;s steed is not robustly muscular but composed of pistons, gears, shafts, and wheels that dynamically flow from one part to the next. The artist completed only a clay model for this sculpture during his lifetime.  His brothers Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp later supervised casting the sculpture in bronze (1930&acirc;&#128;&#147;31). It was not until 1966 that Marcel Duchamp scaled the sculpture to one and a half times the size of the original. The result, Le Cheval Majeur,  is a study of energy and dynamic equilibrium.  
 
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
  
  
  Title
  Le Cheval Majeur (The Large Horse)
  
  
  Artwork Date
  modeled 1914, cast 1966
  
  Artist
  Raymond Duchamp-Villon
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1876-1918
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  French
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Bronze
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 59 &Atilde;&#151; 58 1/2 &Atilde;&#151; 31 1/2 inches, 1100 pounds (149.9 &Atilde;&#151; 148.6 &Atilde;&#151; 80 cm, 499 kg)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  European Modern Art to 1970
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of A. Alfred Taubman
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum&acirc;&#128;&#153;s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems&acirc;&#128;&#148;no longer assigned&acirc;&#128;&#148;that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2006.153
  
  
  Copyright
  Copyright Not Evaluated
  
  
  
