Rue des Rats

Evoking the flatness and artificiality of a stage set, Stuart Davis's lithograph Rue des Rats depicts several old buildings and a wine shop along a short street, probably the one now known as the rue de l'Hôtel-Colbert, in the Latin quarter of Paris. The scene's urban charm is conveyed by means of simplified, flattened shapes and textured shading rather than with more literal, detailed representation. Although he used a similar textured shading for the sky and pavement, Davis varied his treatment of the building facades, alternating white areas created by leaving portions of the paper unprinted with darker tonal areas of gray and black punctuated by windows and doorways. At the upper center of the image, he articulated one side of the sloping Mansard roof with rows of dots. The random nature of such effects, which bear little reference to typical Paris buildings of the kind shown in Davis's image, evoke popular illustration in magazines and in posters, of which the sketchy figure on the wall at the right appears to be an example.

In 1928 Davis, who was already a noted modernist painter in mid-career, departed for Paris, where he stayed for over a year. During this sojourn, he introduced into his paintings and drawings of typical Paris neighborhoods stylistic elements of cubism, the artistic movement, born in Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century, whose practitioners abstracted forms in terms of their component planes and angles. In Paris, Davis made his first lithographs, probably in the printmaking studio of master lithographer Edmond Desjobert. These prints are black-and-white versions of paintings that allowed him to explore tonal values and composition and that promised salability. They bear out Davis's claim that he was a draftsman at heart, notwithstanding his talents as a colorist. Rue des Rats is closely based on the composition of a painting of the same title Stuart made in 1928 (Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota) and was printed in an edition of thirty impressions. He produced a total of eleven lithographs during his productive year in Paris, and went on to make eleven more such prints in the course of his career.

Cole Jr., Sylvan. Checklist of the Prints of Stuart Davis. New York: Associated American Artists, 1976. No. 6.

Jacobowitz, Ellen S. and George H. Marcus. American Graphics, 1860–1940: Selected from the Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982. No. 79, p. 83.

Myers, Jane, ed. Stuart Davis: Graphic Work and Related Paintings with A Catalogue Raisonné of the Prints. (exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum). Fort Worth, Texas: Amon Carter Museum, 1986. No. 5, pp. 7, 34-35.

Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. American Moderns, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text pp. 11, 60 (checklist); fig. 4, p. 12 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. L'Amérique et les modernes, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text pp. 11, 60 (checklist); fig. 4, p. 12 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text p. 174. [specific reference to Terra print]

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Un regard transatlantique. La collection d'art américain de Daniel J. Terra. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text p. 174. [specific reference to Terra print]