Picasso 1907-1931
See also : Sculpture by painters Bust Music and dance Tabletop
Chronology : 1907 1909 1910 1914 1919 1920-1929 1920 1923 1929 1931
Chronology : 1907 1909 1910 1914 1919 1920-1929 1920 1923 1929 1931
masterpiece
1907 Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
MoMA
The painting of the Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907 masterfully demonstrates that anything is possible from the standpoint of the form. Through this single work, Picasso got rid the art of painting from realism, narrative, perspective and depth. The simplified drawing inspired by tribal art is unprecedented in European art.
The achievement of the Demoiselles encouraged Picasso to explore new styles of painting. After Cézanne, he desires to promote expression and structure. Cubisme is not a style nor a school but a pioneering research, with its trials and errors.
Inspired by the African tribal art, Picasso later said : Painting is not an aesthetic operation ; it is a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange, hostile world and us.
The achievement of the Demoiselles encouraged Picasso to explore new styles of painting. After Cézanne, he desires to promote expression and structure. Cubisme is not a style nor a school but a pioneering research, with its trials and errors.
Inspired by the African tribal art, Picasso later said : Painting is not an aesthetic operation ; it is a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange, hostile world and us.
1907 Nu Jaune (study for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon)
2005 SOLD for $ 13.7M by Sotheby's
Pablo Picasso used drawings throughout his career for experimenting artistic effects of line and volume, of gesture and movement.
Nu jaune, watercolor, gouache, and India ink on paper 60 x 40 cm, is a preparation drawing for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, his breakthrough painting executed in 1907.
Arguably the first drawing made for that project, it depicts in broad lines the nude woman who will stand at the right edge of the final composition. The cross hatched angular face inspired from African masks is a cornerstone of the new analytic Cubism.
Nu jaune was sold for $ 13.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2005, lot 4.
Nu jaune, watercolor, gouache, and India ink on paper 60 x 40 cm, is a preparation drawing for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, his breakthrough painting executed in 1907.
Arguably the first drawing made for that project, it depicts in broad lines the nude woman who will stand at the right edge of the final composition. The cross hatched angular face inspired from African masks is a cornerstone of the new analytic Cubism.
Nu jaune was sold for $ 13.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2005, lot 4.
1909 Femme Assise
2016 SOLD for £ 43M by Sotheby's
In 1909 Pablo spends the summer with Fernande in a Catalan village named Horta, only accessible by mule track. During the same summer, Kandinsky gets himself isolated in Murnau with Gabriele. Independently of each other, these two artists become the theorists who are inventing the art of the twentieth century.
On June 21, 2016, Sotheby's sold for £ 43M a portrait of Fernande by Pablo, oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm conceived and painted in Horta, lot 8.
The fragmentation in blocks that gave its name to Cubism offers a similar processing for the three themes tested by Pablo in Horta: portrait, landscape and still life. The outlines of the subject are visible with a little effort leading to recognize the broad face of Fernande. The colors are subject to a similar mix : we are not in front of a portrait but of an image suggesting the features of a seated woman in the warm Catalan summer.
For several of its characteristics, Cubism is a dead end. In the following years, the trend to a dull monochrome increases the difficulty of interpreting the image without offering the puzzling breakthrough of abstraction. The loss of the three-dimensional effect generates the trials of collages which will not save the Cubism.
It does not matter, because every artist can now engage his own style in an original expressive quest. From Picasso, the modern art has become multifaceted.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
On June 21, 2016, Sotheby's sold for £ 43M a portrait of Fernande by Pablo, oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm conceived and painted in Horta, lot 8.
The fragmentation in blocks that gave its name to Cubism offers a similar processing for the three themes tested by Pablo in Horta: portrait, landscape and still life. The outlines of the subject are visible with a little effort leading to recognize the broad face of Fernande. The colors are subject to a similar mix : we are not in front of a portrait but of an image suggesting the features of a seated woman in the warm Catalan summer.
For several of its characteristics, Cubism is a dead end. In the following years, the trend to a dull monochrome increases the difficulty of interpreting the image without offering the puzzling breakthrough of abstraction. The loss of the three-dimensional effect generates the trials of collages which will not save the Cubism.
It does not matter, because every artist can now engage his own style in an original expressive quest. From Picasso, the modern art has become multifaceted.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1910-1939 Tête de Femme (Fernande)
2022 SOLD for $ 48M by Christie's
During his summer of 1909 at Horta, Picasso made eight paintings and several drawings of his accompanying muse Fernande. In his search for a new artistic language that would supersede the reality by the emotion, he bored the 28 year old model.
Back in Paris and ever desiring to experiment techniques, he conceives a Cubist form of bust sculpture based on Fernande's features including her styled hair over the head. The clay is modeled so that the figure is going abstract from some angles of view.
Vollard acquires that clay in 1910 and creates a plaster from which he will have bronzes cast on request from customers up to his death in 1939 for an overall total of about 20 units. The foundry is rarely identified. The exhibition of that Tête de Femme by Vollard in his gallery certainly influenced the development of modern sculpture by Boccioni and Brancusi.
One of these 42 cm bronzes of the Tête de Femme (Fernande) is de-accessioned by the Met Museum which had another example gifted in 2021 by Leonard Lauder. It was sold for $ 48M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 16C.
Back in Paris and ever desiring to experiment techniques, he conceives a Cubist form of bust sculpture based on Fernande's features including her styled hair over the head. The clay is modeled so that the figure is going abstract from some angles of view.
Vollard acquires that clay in 1910 and creates a plaster from which he will have bronzes cast on request from customers up to his death in 1939 for an overall total of about 20 units. The foundry is rarely identified. The exhibition of that Tête de Femme by Vollard in his gallery certainly influenced the development of modern sculpture by Boccioni and Brancusi.
One of these 42 cm bronzes of the Tête de Femme (Fernande) is de-accessioned by the Met Museum which had another example gifted in 2021 by Leonard Lauder. It was sold for $ 48M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 16C.
1914-1918 Femme en Corset lisant un Livre
2023 SOLD for $ 14.8M by Phillips
In 1911 Pablo Picasso begins an affair with Eva Gouel who was the girlfriend of Louis Marcoussis. Fernande Olivier leaves him in the following year.
In his paintings the artist transfers Eva as a guitar which he authenticates by the love declarations Ma Jolie or J'aime Eva. The hermetic phase known as analytic cubism helps the artist to cancel the appearance of his lover as he will do again in the surrealist phase fifteen years later with the still minor Marie-Thérèse.
Femme en corset lisant un livre was executed in the summer of 1914 in Avignon. Picasso experimented the emotional theme of the seated woman in a recognizable form in a quest for superseding the deadlock of his papiers collés. She is here featured in undergarments as evidenced by the corset.
Eva died of cancer in 1915, aged 30. Picasso completed the painting around 1918, possibly influenced by the joyous colors of the Ballets Russes first staged in 1917.
Picasso did not part of it. This oil and sand on canvas 92 x 60 cm was sold for $ 14.8M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 16.
In his paintings the artist transfers Eva as a guitar which he authenticates by the love declarations Ma Jolie or J'aime Eva. The hermetic phase known as analytic cubism helps the artist to cancel the appearance of his lover as he will do again in the surrealist phase fifteen years later with the still minor Marie-Thérèse.
Femme en corset lisant un livre was executed in the summer of 1914 in Avignon. Picasso experimented the emotional theme of the seated woman in a recognizable form in a quest for superseding the deadlock of his papiers collés. She is here featured in undergarments as evidenced by the corset.
Eva died of cancer in 1915, aged 30. Picasso completed the painting around 1918, possibly influenced by the joyous colors of the Ballets Russes first staged in 1917.
Picasso did not part of it. This oil and sand on canvas 92 x 60 cm was sold for $ 14.8M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 16.
1919 Guitare sur une Table
2022 SOLD for $ 37M by Sotheby's
Guitar on a tabletop was a preferred theme of the Cubist pioneers, Gris, Picasso and Braque. In 1919 war is over and the synthetic phase of Cubism is giving way to the Neoclassicism.
Under the influence of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Picasso continues in both styles with dynamic pure colors, as demonstrated by a pair of portraits of Olga started simultaneously ca 1917 of which the Cubist version was sold for $ 30.5M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, lot 7 A.
Guitare sur une table painted by Picasso in 1919 in Paris is a mixed style in which the mandolin shaped instrument is displayed beside a sheet of staves in a flattened trompe l'oeil that includes a joyful blue sky through a window.
This oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 108, for the benefit of the MoMA and of charities.
Under the influence of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Picasso continues in both styles with dynamic pure colors, as demonstrated by a pair of portraits of Olga started simultaneously ca 1917 of which the Cubist version was sold for $ 30.5M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, lot 7 A.
Guitare sur une table painted by Picasso in 1919 in Paris is a mixed style in which the mandolin shaped instrument is displayed beside a sheet of staves in a flattened trompe l'oeil that includes a joyful blue sky through a window.
This oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 108, for the benefit of the MoMA and of charities.
1920 The Two Pictures of Olga
2017 SOLD for $ 30.5M including premium
Times are hard. Pablo Picasso had provided a formidable boost to modern art with the Demoiselles and then with the analytical Cubism using or imitating collages. Competitors follow with enthusiasm but customers are rare for this art that is too intellectual, especially in that period of war. A return to classicism becomes vital but Picasso can not get rid of his avant-garde ambition.
Around 1916 he attempts a new approach by simplifying the geometric shapes and by reducing the number of elements. The readability remains difficult except perhaps in the still life. To convince his audience Picasso indeed needs to convince himself.
He realizes two portraits of Olga in the same format, based on the same photograph. One of them is realistic in the style of Ingres, the other is Cubist. The artist wants to demonstrate that the impression offered to the viewer by a work of art does not depend on the style.
Zervos considers that both paintings were started simultaneously in 1917. The Ingresque portrait is finished early. The Cubist portrait is continually reworked until 1920. The result is as luminous as a stained glass window with its solid colors enclosed in outlines of white stripes bordered by a black line. The woman maintains an identical attitude on both images.
The use of the Cubist portrait like a piece of laboratory for the development of a new style is at no doubt. Picasso kept this work throughout his life, certainly not in memory of Olga but as a demonstrator of the evolution of his art in that difficult period of his career.
The Cubist portrait, oil on canvas 130 x 89 cm, is estimated $ 20M by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 7 A offered along with seven other major artworks for the benefit of the Cleveland Clinic Heart and Vascular Institute. Please watch the video in which Christie's introduces the whole set.
Around 1916 he attempts a new approach by simplifying the geometric shapes and by reducing the number of elements. The readability remains difficult except perhaps in the still life. To convince his audience Picasso indeed needs to convince himself.
He realizes two portraits of Olga in the same format, based on the same photograph. One of them is realistic in the style of Ingres, the other is Cubist. The artist wants to demonstrate that the impression offered to the viewer by a work of art does not depend on the style.
Zervos considers that both paintings were started simultaneously in 1917. The Ingresque portrait is finished early. The Cubist portrait is continually reworked until 1920. The result is as luminous as a stained glass window with its solid colors enclosed in outlines of white stripes bordered by a black line. The woman maintains an identical attitude on both images.
The use of the Cubist portrait like a piece of laboratory for the development of a new style is at no doubt. Picasso kept this work throughout his life, certainly not in memory of Olga but as a demonstrator of the evolution of his art in that difficult period of his career.
The Cubist portrait, oil on canvas 130 x 89 cm, is estimated $ 20M by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 7 A offered along with seven other major artworks for the benefit of the Cleveland Clinic Heart and Vascular Institute. Please watch the video in which Christie's introduces the whole set.
1923 The Real Olga
2019 SOLD for $ 25M including premium
The son of Pablo and Olga Picasso, Paulo, was born in 1921. The amazed artist paints maternities. Two years later, moods have already changed : the mother and the child are the subject of separate paintings. The couple is not well. Olga is increasingly melancholic and introverted, which does not suit the temperament of this forty-year-old who transfers his fantasies into his erotic drawings.
In 1923 Picasso seeks once again a style. After the Demoiselles d'Avignon and Cubisme, he uses his drawing skills for a neo-classicism. Hands and feet of his characters are exaggerated to express the monumental majesty of ancient goddesses. Picasso admired one of his predecessors, Paul Cézanne. In this same period his still lifes allow him to persevere in a Cubism where he hides the erotic references that could disturb Olga.
In April 1923 he paints three large portraits of Olga, two in oil and one in pastel. The sharp brush stroke is a tribute to the idealized beauty of the former ballerina of the Ballets Russes. The hues of great softness express a demand for empathy that Pablo still has with his wife but his erotic desire is no longer on her.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells La Lettre (la réponse), oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, lot 64A estimated $ 20M. The young woman is seated at a desk for writing a letter but she has entered her reverie and does not use her pen.
These three portraits are among the last paintings of Picasso's Ingresque period. In the following year, he radically reinterprets cubism by replacing collage-shaped flat areas with an application to human figures of the de-construction of the Cézannian space. In 1928 surrealism allows Picasso to stop differentiating Olga from other women. Their communication issue inevitably leads to the break.
In 1923 Picasso seeks once again a style. After the Demoiselles d'Avignon and Cubisme, he uses his drawing skills for a neo-classicism. Hands and feet of his characters are exaggerated to express the monumental majesty of ancient goddesses. Picasso admired one of his predecessors, Paul Cézanne. In this same period his still lifes allow him to persevere in a Cubism where he hides the erotic references that could disturb Olga.
In April 1923 he paints three large portraits of Olga, two in oil and one in pastel. The sharp brush stroke is a tribute to the idealized beauty of the former ballerina of the Ballets Russes. The hues of great softness express a demand for empathy that Pablo still has with his wife but his erotic desire is no longer on her.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells La Lettre (la réponse), oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, lot 64A estimated $ 20M. The young woman is seated at a desk for writing a letter but she has entered her reverie and does not use her pen.
These three portraits are among the last paintings of Picasso's Ingresque period. In the following year, he radically reinterprets cubism by replacing collage-shaped flat areas with an application to human figures of the de-construction of the Cézannian space. In 1928 surrealism allows Picasso to stop differentiating Olga from other women. Their communication issue inevitably leads to the break.
1923 La Cage d'Oiseaux
1988 SOLD for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's
Around 1923 Picasso continues in his neo-classicism but the portraits of pretty women may disturb Olga. His former Cubist style of still lifes may help.
La Cage d'Oiseaux is displaying a mingled variety of objects in a room with a window. The theme was a pretext to juxtapose the bright colors. A tiny cage sheltering a yellow bird hiding a white bird is the most readable element in this typical Cubist painting.
This monumental oil on canvas 200 x 140 cm was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on November 10, 1988 from the deceased estate of Victor Ganz.
La Cage d'Oiseaux is displaying a mingled variety of objects in a room with a window. The theme was a pretext to juxtapose the bright colors. A tiny cage sheltering a yellow bird hiding a white bird is the most readable element in this typical Cubist painting.
This monumental oil on canvas 200 x 140 cm was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on November 10, 1988 from the deceased estate of Victor Ganz.
1929 La Fenêtre Ouverte
2022 SOLD for £ 16.3M by Christie's
Pablo Picasso was upset by the increasing success of Matisse. He looked for a style of ideal woman that would counter the odalisques of his rival. He imagined a blonde with fair skin and gorgeous forms. Some portraits painted in 1926, with the face mainly in the shade to avoid identification, already expressed the new ideal.
His random quest in the Paris Grands Boulevards was successful. In January 8, 1927 he found the 17 year old Marie-Thérèse. This encounter made life uneasy. His married life with Olga was then in turmoil and his would be mistress was still a minor.
In that time, Picasso style was Neo Classical with a high level of realism. That did not match the need to hide Marie-Thérèse from Olga and from the French vice squads. The mingling of the difficultly readable Cubism with the then fashioned hermetic Surrealism would offer him the solution.
Picasso waits for this beauty to finish blossoming. He cultivates Marie-Thérèse like a potted plant and barely manages to restrain his amorous impulses. She is innocent and believes that her kindness will be enough to keep their relationship going.
Femme assise dans un fauteuil, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm dated January 1927, was arguably painted at a time of excitement just after Pablo met his muse. The heavily disturbed body has no specific features, excepted the light color of the skin plus one outlined breast that make felt that she is in the nude. The fully distorted teeth bearing face may be Olga"s.
Picasso remained careful. He kept the painting until the mid 1950s and its exhibition history begins in 1939. It was sold for $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 19. A Grand nu au fauteuil rouge painted in May 1929 will confirm the nudity without revealing detailed Marie-Thérèse's features.
Aged 20 in 1929, Marie-Thérèse Walter is still a minor according to French law. Picasso manages major efforts for preserving his clandestine love from law pursuits and from the jealousy of his wife.
In his art, Picasso does not reveal the body and face of his muse. Mad in love, he cannot restraint to include playful symbols that definitely address Marie-Thérèse in his own mind while remaining hermetic to the viewers. He is close to the Surréalistes at that time.
In a much stylized and even childish drawing style, La Fenêtre ouverte features two beings. On the right side, the top of a lamp is the head in profile of a woman who has a sharp angled nose and mouth over the otherwise rounded lines of Marie-Thérèse's head. The base of the lamp is a five fingered hand clutching a beachball which reminds the 1928 and 1929 Dinard summertime of the lovers. Marie-Thérèse later said about that picture : "It's me alright".
On the left side, an E block letter is made of a pair of human bare feet linked by a single vertical leg while the middle bar is a phallic arrow pointing to the woman-lamp. E is the first letter of Eros, the beloved deity of the Dadaists.
Behind that weird couple, a window opens to the Eglise Sainte-Clotilde, identifiable by its two spires, in the vicinity of some secret love nest.
La Fenêtre ouverte, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm painted in November 1929, was sold for £ 16.3M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 108.
His random quest in the Paris Grands Boulevards was successful. In January 8, 1927 he found the 17 year old Marie-Thérèse. This encounter made life uneasy. His married life with Olga was then in turmoil and his would be mistress was still a minor.
In that time, Picasso style was Neo Classical with a high level of realism. That did not match the need to hide Marie-Thérèse from Olga and from the French vice squads. The mingling of the difficultly readable Cubism with the then fashioned hermetic Surrealism would offer him the solution.
Picasso waits for this beauty to finish blossoming. He cultivates Marie-Thérèse like a potted plant and barely manages to restrain his amorous impulses. She is innocent and believes that her kindness will be enough to keep their relationship going.
Femme assise dans un fauteuil, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm dated January 1927, was arguably painted at a time of excitement just after Pablo met his muse. The heavily disturbed body has no specific features, excepted the light color of the skin plus one outlined breast that make felt that she is in the nude. The fully distorted teeth bearing face may be Olga"s.
Picasso remained careful. He kept the painting until the mid 1950s and its exhibition history begins in 1939. It was sold for $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 19. A Grand nu au fauteuil rouge painted in May 1929 will confirm the nudity without revealing detailed Marie-Thérèse's features.
Aged 20 in 1929, Marie-Thérèse Walter is still a minor according to French law. Picasso manages major efforts for preserving his clandestine love from law pursuits and from the jealousy of his wife.
In his art, Picasso does not reveal the body and face of his muse. Mad in love, he cannot restraint to include playful symbols that definitely address Marie-Thérèse in his own mind while remaining hermetic to the viewers. He is close to the Surréalistes at that time.
In a much stylized and even childish drawing style, La Fenêtre ouverte features two beings. On the right side, the top of a lamp is the head in profile of a woman who has a sharp angled nose and mouth over the otherwise rounded lines of Marie-Thérèse's head. The base of the lamp is a five fingered hand clutching a beachball which reminds the 1928 and 1929 Dinard summertime of the lovers. Marie-Thérèse later said about that picture : "It's me alright".
On the left side, an E block letter is made of a pair of human bare feet linked by a single vertical leg while the middle bar is a phallic arrow pointing to the woman-lamp. E is the first letter of Eros, the beloved deity of the Dadaists.
Behind that weird couple, a window opens to the Eglise Sainte-Clotilde, identifiable by its two spires, in the vicinity of some secret love nest.
La Fenêtre ouverte, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm painted in November 1929, was sold for £ 16.3M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 108.
1931 La Lampe
2018 SOLD for $ 29.6M by Christie's
In 1930 Picasso buys Boisgeloup to install a sculpture workshop where he will not disturb the neighbors and which he will use as a nest of love for his young muse Marie-Thérèse, away from peeping eyes. Their affair is secret and Pablo does not take the risk that Olga identifies the girl by his painted portraits of her. With cubist sculpture based on the proportions of volumes, realism is not obvious.
He gives priority to the sculpture of busts of Marie-Thérèse, available full time during their secret stays. It is no coincidence that La Lampe, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm begun at Boisgeloup on January 21, 1931 and completed on June 8, displays a sculptural bust. It was sold for $ 29.6M by Christie's on November 11, 2018, lot 22 A.
The theme of the artwork is indeed not the young woman but her bust in white plaster, seen in profile. The stems and leaves of the philodendron create a pattern like a church window which makes even less easy the identification of the model. The oil lamp hanging from an invisible ceiling provides a moon shaped golden light that can be interpreted as the model's ponytail.
In the months that follow, Picasso is emboldened. On March 8, 1932 Marie-Thérèse introduces herself as a nude sleeper amidst the same statue and plant. The profile of the head becomes recognizable. This painting was sold for $ 106M by Christie's in 2010.
The next day, March 9, 1932, Picasso painted the same sleeper in the Nu au Fauteuil Noir. The philodendron, symbol of vitality, is still there. The bust has been removed : it is no longer useful beside the real model. This painting was sold for $ 45M by Christie's in 1999.
He gives priority to the sculpture of busts of Marie-Thérèse, available full time during their secret stays. It is no coincidence that La Lampe, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm begun at Boisgeloup on January 21, 1931 and completed on June 8, displays a sculptural bust. It was sold for $ 29.6M by Christie's on November 11, 2018, lot 22 A.
The theme of the artwork is indeed not the young woman but her bust in white plaster, seen in profile. The stems and leaves of the philodendron create a pattern like a church window which makes even less easy the identification of the model. The oil lamp hanging from an invisible ceiling provides a moon shaped golden light that can be interpreted as the model's ponytail.
In the months that follow, Picasso is emboldened. On March 8, 1932 Marie-Thérèse introduces herself as a nude sleeper amidst the same statue and plant. The profile of the head becomes recognizable. This painting was sold for $ 106M by Christie's in 2010.
The next day, March 9, 1932, Picasso painted the same sleeper in the Nu au Fauteuil Noir. The philodendron, symbol of vitality, is still there. The bust has been removed : it is no longer useful beside the real model. This painting was sold for $ 45M by Christie's in 1999.
