Vibrant and colorful, Robert Delaunay’s The City of Paris portrays not only how the city looks but what it feels like. The three figures at the center of the painting represent the Three Graces of Greek mythology, who are personifications of beauty. Their positions here are adapted from a Roman fresco from Pompeii. Linking the achievements of the past with the vibrating pulse of modern life, the Graces extend their arms from antiquity and present to us the Parisian cityscape—indicated by the Eiffel Tower, which was completed in 1889 and was already an iconic landmark in the early twentieth century.

The classical subject matter and modern aesthetic suggest the bridge that Delaunay was trying to build between established artistic traditions and a rapidly changing urban culture. He completed this painting at a moment of transition, when he was moving away from Cubism and toward purely abstract compositions. Here, bursts of shimmering color and light and fragmented forms give the effect of looking at the whole of the city at once through a kaleidoscope.

Robert Delaunay (1885–1941), The City of Paris. Oil on canvas, about 1911. 47 x 68 in. (119.4 x 172.7cm). Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1955.38. On view in Gallery 3.