Marcel Broodthaers

Untitled (General with Cigar)

1970

Found oil painting and cigar

Not on view

Broodthaers bought a portrait of a Belgian general at a flea market then punctured the canvas and inserted a half-smoked cigar into the figure's mouth. This act of defacement demonstrates the artist's mockery of the traditions of painting, conventions already called into question by his treatment of the handmade oil painting as a ready-made object for inclusion in his own artwork. Broodthaers considered General with Cigar to be one of his most important works. It is also among his most overtly political: clothed in a military uniform and adorned with medals, badges, and insignias, the figure of the general is an embodiment of nationalism, an ideal undermined by the artist’s deadpan and slyly comical defacement.

Gallery label from

2012.

Medium Found oil painting and cigar
Dimensions 15 3/4 x 11 13/16 x 2 3/4" (40 x 30 x 7 cm)
Credit Partial gift of the Daled Collection and partial purchase through the generosity of Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Agnes Gund, Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, and Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley
Object number 613.2011
Department Painting & Sculpture

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Marcel Broodthaers

Marcel Broodthaers

Belgian, 1924–1976 95 works online

Over the course of 12 extraordinary years, Marcel Broodthaers developed a distinctive body of work characterized by irreverence, wit, introspection, and skepticism.

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