Born in Philadelphia in 1892, Stuart Davis is known by many art historians as the American painter most influenced by Cubism. Art historian Norman Geske described Davis' career as a "near classical demonstration of the process by which American painting of the twentieth century came of age." Davis moved from journalistic illustration to Social Realism, to Expressionism, to Cubism, ultimately becoming one of America's leading Abstractionists. Strongly influenced by Fernand Léger and the New York Armory Show of 1913, he developed his own unique style of Cubism, which also incorporated Realism.

Davis’ mother was sculptor Helen Stuart Foulke and his father, Edward Wyatt Davis, art editor of the Philadelphia Press. Through his father, he had early association with John Sloan and Robert Henri, with whom he studied in New York City from 1910 to 1913. The Armory Show of 1913 dissuaded him from following the Realist styles of Sloan and Henri, but he maintained his early artistic focus on aspects of the Social Realism they espoused in that many of his subjects were mundane places, such as run-down hotels or apartment interiors. Davis experimented with Cubism, collage, and total Abstraction, and eventually settled on a style based on Cubism with much improvisation.

In the late 1920s, he lived in Paris in Jan Matulka's studio close to other Modernists including Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, and Morris Kantor. He then returned to New York City, where he spent the remainder of his career. He had a New York City studio and also one in Hoboken, New Jersey. From that time, his paintings reflected American experience, especially his love of jazz music, with the Modernist styles he employed beginning with the Armory Show of 1913.

Study for “Pochade” # 2 is one of three studies for one of Davis’ masterworks, Pochade, 1956-1958 (52 x 60 inches), once owned by Edith Halpert and now in the collection of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. This study was begun in 1957 when the larger work was already in progress and was completed in June 1958 after the more major work was finished. The other studies, Study for “Pochade” # 1 and Study for “Pochade” # 3, are in a private collection in Massachusetts and the Milwaukee Art Museum respectively. Davis also made two related drawings of the same title on canvas, (Untitled (Black and White Variation on “Pochade”)): nos. 1712 and 1713, both remaining in the artist’s estate.

According to the catalogue raisonne of the artist’s work, these studies explore the “Continuity Coordinates” of Pochade. The title is derived from a French term meaning rapid sketch. Robert Henri’s quick on-the-spot paintings on small wood panels, mostly executed in France from 1890-circa 1900, were also called pochades and may have served as inspiration for this concept. Davis himself wrote about this painting in unpublished notes:

Pochade carries out the idea that a first class painting is an Object. All feelings incident to its Subject material and executions, along with the theories of procedure, disappear with the emergence of the Object. Discovery is its own reward, especially when what is found doesn’t look too much like the artist.[i]

Davis achieved this result using the three oil studies to explore the relation of color, form, and space. Study for Pochade #2 resembles the large-scale oil in palette and composition. The artist characteristically limits color in both to four bold hues: red, white, green and black. Although the basic composition is similar in both works, the color relations differ. The study has thick red and white borders; the major oil, a thin green one. In the large painting, the black area of the study has been changed to white, the red area to black, and the green area to red.

Study for Pochade # 2 is representative of the style and energy of Davis’ mature works. Here he creates clearly defined planes of color with heavily applied paint, creating a vigorous impastoed surface. The red and black structural forms seem to interlock with the expanse of green in an almost trompe l’oeil effect, while the only lettering, as opposed to “cat,” “news,” and “Elite” in the major painting, is the artist’s signature integrated into the composition. The present work clearly typifies the artist’s definition of Modern art, as he stated in 1957:

[i] Davis as quoted in Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkoski, editors, Stuart Davis A Catalogue Raisonne (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), vol. 3, p. 434, no. 1711

[ii] Davis quoted in Nancy B. Davis, Stuart Davis (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1957), p. 34