Sundays

Sundays by Marcel Duchamp is an early mixed-media drawing executed in 1909, created using Conté crayon, ink, and gouache on paper. Classified as a drawing, this piece provides valuable insight into the critical formative period of Marcel Duchamp’s career, which predates his radical engagement with Cubism and his subsequent invention of Dadaist conceptual art.

Executed during a time when the artist was developing a foundational figurative practice in Paris, this work displays his rigorous technical training. The medium combination is deliberate: the Conté crayon lends a rich, textural depth and tonal variation typical of traditional drawing studies, while the ink provides sharper delineation. This is softened by the application of gauzy gouache washes, which allow Duchamp to explore light and shadow across the depicted scene. As a genre study dating from 1909, the piece is key to understanding the visual conventions the artist mastered before intentionally challenging established academic norms.

Although the work originated in France, it is classified within the context of the American artist’s legacy, reflecting his eventual cultural identification and profound influence on modern art in the United States. Drawings like this are essential for scholars seeking to trace the precise trajectory of Duchamp’s stylistic progression away from representation toward conceptual abstraction. The early drawings demonstrate the formal skills that underpinned his later revolutionary gestures, offering a vital counterpoint to the famous readymades he would produce only a few years later.

This important drawing is maintained in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where it contributes to the comprehensive documentation of early twentieth-century artistic shifts. The enduring interest in this formative era means that high-quality prints and archival records are frequently utilized by researchers studying the period just before Duchamp achieved international recognition and entered the public domain of influential figures.