L'Homme à la pipe painted on May 8, 1969 joins this movement with other features. He is not a mosquetero but an artist. The heavy beard and the hat in the style of a canotier even allows to identify an impressionist. The beard is green, providing a link between the pioneers of outdoor painting and the desire of a return to the land expressed by the new generations.
Young people are indeed restless at that time, with the protest movements of 1968 and the Woodstock festival in the following year. They are more appealed by this new style of Picasso than by Van Dyck or Velazquez. The images of Pablo are sharp, without those cubist distortions of the faces that were beginning to bother his own admirers.
L'Homme à la pipe is a larger than life oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm. It was sold for $ 11.8M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007. It is estimated $ 15M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 16, lot 26 B.
SOLD for $ 18.4M including premium