French, 1876-1918
Large Horse (Le Cheval majeur), 1914 (enlargement 1966) Bronze, 59 1/2 x 57 x 34 in. (151.1 x 144.8 x 86.4 cm.)
Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Dallas, Texas
1980.A.06
Label Text
Although vestiges of a horse's form are still apparent in Duchamp-Villon's Large Horse, he has almost completely reinterpreted the animal's form into a mechanical dynamo of gears, flywheels, pistons, and tie-rods. Viewing the work from all sides reveals the complexity of the composition. Natural and machine forms merge into an enthusiastic tribute to the displacement of horsepower by machine power, what Duchamp-Villon referred to as the "audacity" and "sublimity" of modern engineering.
At the time of the artist's death from typhoid fever in 1918, contracted while serving in World War I, he had begun to enlarge a model of the composition. His two brothers, the artists Marcel Duchamp and Jacques Villon, later carried out two successive enlargements and had them cast into bronze. This version is the largest.