Work

After the Second World War, Constant starts to experiment with a cubist painting style. Of the two founders of cubism, Picasso and Braque, Constant feels more akin with the latter. It is often said that the cubist work of Braque maintains a sense of balance and harmony while Picasso strived for disruption in his art. This still life is indeed a fine example from Constant's body of work of a balanced harmony of shapes, as seen in Braque's cubism. For another example, see Portret van Matie [II], 1946.

Circa 1944.

Constant and his partner Matie Domselaer, who would become his wife in 1942, lived along Sarphatipark in Amsterdam during the Second World War. During the war, artists were required to register with the Reich Chamber of Culture to be allowed to continue their practice. Constant did not register and would therefore hide in the crawl space under the house when danger approached. Matie would sit on the hatch to the crawl space and knit away as if nothing was out of the ordinary. 

circa 1942