movement and distance became manifest, and like many artists of the time, he was intrigued with the concept of depicting a “Fourth dimension” in art.
Works from this period included his first “machine” painting, Coffee Mill (Moulin caf) (1911), which he gave to his brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon. The Coffee Mill shows similarity to the “grinder” mechanism of the Large Glass he was to paint years later.
In his 1911 Portrait of Chess Players (Portrait de joueurs d’echecs) there is the Cubist overlapping frames and multiple perspectives of his two brothers playing chess, but to that Duchamp added elements conveying the unseen mental activity of the players. (Notably, “chec” is French for “failure”.)
Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912). Oil on canvas. 57 7/8″ x 35 1/8″. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Nude