Raymond Duchamp-Villon was one of the most talented and tragic casualties of World War I in the arts. He died in the final weeks of the war from septicaemia which he contracted while serving as a voluntary auxiliary doctor. Duchamp-Villon was the second of three artist brothers, the eldest being Jacques Villon and the youngest Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp-Villon’s studies at the Faculté de Medicine in Paris were interrupted by illness in 1898, and it was while convalescing that he discovered his vocation for sculpture.
Though largely self-taught, he soon attained considerable technical mastery, exhibiting at the fairly traditionalist Salon National and later at the more adventurous Salon d’Automne in a style initially much influenced by Rodin. As with so many artists of his generation, Duchamp-Villon needed to throw off this influence, and Cubism eventually provided the means to do so. In 1906 Duchamp-Villon moved to the district of Puteaux, west of central Paris, where he shared a studio with his brother, Jacques Villon, and with the Czech artist Frank Kupka. After 1910 these studios became a magnet for a group of artists that included Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Roger de la Frenaye, Henri Le Fauconnier and Fernand Léger. These young artists were all keen to explore the exciting possibilities opened up by the advent of Cubism. They exhibited together at the Salon d’Automne of 1911 and under the group title of Section d’Or at the Galerie La Boétie in 1912.
In the two years that remained to him before the outbreak of war, Duchamp-Villon produced his most innovative and original works. In many ways these works paralleled contemporary work by the Italian Futurists. Like the Futurists, Duchamp-Villon used Cubist devices to represent movement and the dynamism of modern life. His best-known work entitled The Major Horse (opposite) was completed while on leave from military service, and was cast in bronze after his death.