Picasso 1907-1931
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Sculpture by painters Bust Music and dance Tabletop
Chronology : 1900-1909 1909 1910 1919 1920-1929 1920 1923 1925 1929 1931
See also : Sculpture by painters Bust Music and dance Tabletop
Chronology : 1900-1909 1909 1910 1919 1920-1929 1920 1923 1925 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. Other influences are el Greco and Gauguin.
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.
Another influence is the Femmes d'Alger by Delacroix. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon displays a group of women. Unlike in Delacroix, they are naked. They are not in the hot atmosphere of a harem but their offering is venal.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, is one of Pablo Picasso's most revolutionary works and a landmark in 20th-century art. Painted when Picasso was just 25, this large oil on canvas (approximately 8 ft × 7 ft 8 in / 244 × 234 cm) depicts five nude women—prostitutes in a Barcelona brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó (Avignon Street)—in a confrontational, angular style that shattered traditional Western painting conventions.Here is the full painting for reference:
Artist's Motivation
Picasso aimed to reinvent painting with radical force, rejecting idealized beauty, Renaissance perspective, and naturalistic representation. The work stemmed from personal and artistic turmoil: his complex relationships with women, fears of disease (like syphilis, common in brothels he visited), and a drive to challenge contemporaries like Henri Matisse, whose Fauvism dominated the avant-garde. Picasso described African-influenced elements as "magic things" that exorcised threats and imposed form on terror and desire. The painting's psychosexual charge—aggressive gazes, distorted bodies—reflects a mix of eroticism, anxiety, and power dynamics, turning the viewer into the object of confrontation.
Key Influences
Picasso drew from multiple sources:
Picasso's encounter with African art was transformative. In October 1906, he studied a Congolese Teke figure owned by Matisse, sparking early sketches. In spring 1907 (shortly before finalizing the painting), he visited the Musée d'Éthnographie du Trocadéro (now Musée de l'Homme), where African and Oceanic artifacts profoundly impacted him. He called the masks "magic objects" that liberated him from Western traditions, providing raw, antinaturalistic forms to express power and confrontation.
The two rightmost figures feature mask-like faces: angular, geometric, and stylized, evoking African masks (e.g., from Fang, Kota, or Teke traditions). These were not literal copies but syntheses—flat planes, exaggerated features, and a sense of spiritual intensity that Picasso used to break from realism. The crouching woman on the right, with her frontal-and-profile face, foreshadows full Cubism. While Picasso later downplayed African influence (insisting on Iberian primacy in denials), most scholars (including MoMA curators and historians like William Rubin) affirm it as foundational, fueling the painting's primitivism and "savage" energy. Debates persist—some recent claims suggest medieval Catalan frescoes over African sources—but the visual and historical evidence for African masks remains strong and "unmistakable.
Examples of African tribal masks that echo the painting's forms represent typical Fang, Kota, or similar mask styles that influenced Picasso's angular, abstracted facial features.
Breakthrough
Completed in summer 1907 after hundreds of studies, Les Demoiselles marked a violent rupture: it banished single-point perspective, unified style, and idealized nudes, replacing them with jagged planes, multiple viewpoints, and raw confrontation. Though not fully Cubist (more proto-Cubist or expressionist in its violence), it initiated Cubism's language of fragmented form, paving the way for Picasso's collaboration with Georges Braque (1908–1914). It shocked peers—Matisse called it a "bad joke"—and remained largely private until 1916.
Legacy
Hailed as "the first painting of modern art," it redefined pictorial language, influencing Cubism, abstraction, and beyond. Acquired by MoMA in 1939 (after private ownership), it has been central to exhibitions on primitivism and modernism. Its bold challenge to beauty, gender, and cultural appropriation continues to provoke debate—celebrated for innovation yet critiqued for exoticizing non-Western art. Over a century later, it remains a cornerstone of 20th-century art, symbolizing the shift from tradition to radical experimentation.
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. Other influences are el Greco and Gauguin.
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.
Another influence is the Femmes d'Alger by Delacroix. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon displays a group of women. Unlike in Delacroix, they are naked. They are not in the hot atmosphere of a harem but their offering is venal.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, is one of Pablo Picasso's most revolutionary works and a landmark in 20th-century art. Painted when Picasso was just 25, this large oil on canvas (approximately 8 ft × 7 ft 8 in / 244 × 234 cm) depicts five nude women—prostitutes in a Barcelona brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó (Avignon Street)—in a confrontational, angular style that shattered traditional Western painting conventions.Here is the full painting for reference:
Artist's Motivation
Picasso aimed to reinvent painting with radical force, rejecting idealized beauty, Renaissance perspective, and naturalistic representation. The work stemmed from personal and artistic turmoil: his complex relationships with women, fears of disease (like syphilis, common in brothels he visited), and a drive to challenge contemporaries like Henri Matisse, whose Fauvism dominated the avant-garde. Picasso described African-influenced elements as "magic things" that exorcised threats and imposed form on terror and desire. The painting's psychosexual charge—aggressive gazes, distorted bodies—reflects a mix of eroticism, anxiety, and power dynamics, turning the viewer into the object of confrontation.
Key Influences
Picasso drew from multiple sources:
- Paul Cézanne — Geometric structuring and multiple viewpoints in still lifes and bathers.
- Paul Gauguin — Monumental, curvier nudes and primitivism.
- El Greco — Dramatic, elongated forms.
- Iberian sculpture — Ancient Spanish artifacts (e.g., Osuna reliefs from the Louvre), influencing the rounded, archaic faces of the three left figures.
- African tribal art — A major focus, as requested. Picasso encountered African sculptures and masks through Paris's colonial collections.
Picasso's encounter with African art was transformative. In October 1906, he studied a Congolese Teke figure owned by Matisse, sparking early sketches. In spring 1907 (shortly before finalizing the painting), he visited the Musée d'Éthnographie du Trocadéro (now Musée de l'Homme), where African and Oceanic artifacts profoundly impacted him. He called the masks "magic objects" that liberated him from Western traditions, providing raw, antinaturalistic forms to express power and confrontation.
The two rightmost figures feature mask-like faces: angular, geometric, and stylized, evoking African masks (e.g., from Fang, Kota, or Teke traditions). These were not literal copies but syntheses—flat planes, exaggerated features, and a sense of spiritual intensity that Picasso used to break from realism. The crouching woman on the right, with her frontal-and-profile face, foreshadows full Cubism. While Picasso later downplayed African influence (insisting on Iberian primacy in denials), most scholars (including MoMA curators and historians like William Rubin) affirm it as foundational, fueling the painting's primitivism and "savage" energy. Debates persist—some recent claims suggest medieval Catalan frescoes over African sources—but the visual and historical evidence for African masks remains strong and "unmistakable.
Examples of African tribal masks that echo the painting's forms represent typical Fang, Kota, or similar mask styles that influenced Picasso's angular, abstracted facial features.
Breakthrough
Completed in summer 1907 after hundreds of studies, Les Demoiselles marked a violent rupture: it banished single-point perspective, unified style, and idealized nudes, replacing them with jagged planes, multiple viewpoints, and raw confrontation. Though not fully Cubist (more proto-Cubist or expressionist in its violence), it initiated Cubism's language of fragmented form, paving the way for Picasso's collaboration with Georges Braque (1908–1914). It shocked peers—Matisse called it a "bad joke"—and remained largely private until 1916.
Legacy
Hailed as "the first painting of modern art," it redefined pictorial language, influencing Cubism, abstraction, and beyond. Acquired by MoMA in 1939 (after private ownership), it has been central to exhibitions on primitivism and modernism. Its bold challenge to beauty, gender, and cultural appropriation continues to provoke debate—celebrated for innovation yet critiqued for exoticizing non-Western art. Over a century later, it remains a cornerstone of 20th-century art, symbolizing the shift from tradition to radical experimentation.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) provoked intense shock among both art critics and the broader public (or at least the avant-garde circles that first encountered it) precisely because of its raw, aggressive distortion of the human form and its complete rejection of traditional perspective, along with other conventions of Western painting.
Initial Reactions in 1907
Picasso did not exhibit the painting publicly right away. He completed it in his Montmartre studio (Bateau-Lavoir) and showed it privately to a small circle of close friends, fellow artists, dealers, and critics in the summer of 1907. The responses were overwhelmingly negative or stunned—even from those who were part of the progressive art scene:
The painting remained largely hidden in Picasso's studio for nearly a decade due to the hostile private reactions. It first appeared publicly in July 1916 at the Salon d'Antin in Paris (in an exhibition titled L'Art moderne en France, organized by critic André Salmon, who retitled it Les Demoiselles d'Avignon from the more scandalous Le Bordel d'Avignon to soften its impact). Even then, journalists and audiences were scandalized by the "hacked-up" forms and lack of realism, viewing it as immoral or incomprehensible. A photo had appeared earlier (1910) in The Architectural Record, but widespread acceptance only grew in the 1920s, thanks to supporters like André Breton.
Why This Shock Mattered
The distortions and flattened perspective weren't mere stylistic experiments—they signaled a deliberate "act of destruction" (as Picasso later put it) of 19th-century aesthetics to make way for modernism. It challenged viewers to confront art not as a window onto reality but as an autonomous object with its own aggressive logic. This paved the way for full Analytic Cubism (with Braque) and influenced countless movements, from abstraction to expressionism.Today, the painting's power to unsettle persists—its raw energy still feels confrontational—but it has become a canonical masterpiece, symbolizing the birth of 20th-century art's radical freedom. The initial outrage was exactly what made it revolutionary.
Initial Reactions in 1907
Picasso did not exhibit the painting publicly right away. He completed it in his Montmartre studio (Bateau-Lavoir) and showed it privately to a small circle of close friends, fellow artists, dealers, and critics in the summer of 1907. The responses were overwhelmingly negative or stunned—even from those who were part of the progressive art scene:
- Henri Matisse (Picasso's main rival at the time) reacted violently, reportedly calling it a "bad joke" or "hideous," and viewing it as an assault on the modern movement he led with Fauvism. He felt it stole attention from his own works like Blue Nude (1907) and Le Bonheur de Vivre (1905–1906), and it indirectly spurred him to respond in later paintings.
- Georges Braque (who would soon become Picasso's key collaborator in developing Cubism) was initially troubled and shocked, describing the effect as feeling like "someone was drinking gasoline and spitting fire."
- André Derain and others in the Fauve circle were similarly disturbed.
- Poet Guillaume Apollinaire was not enthusiastic, while art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (who became one of Picasso's strongest early supporters) saw its revolutionary potential and hailed it as the beginning of Cubism.
- Some friends mocked it outright, fearing it could end Picasso's career, with laughter over its supposed attempt to depict a "fourth dimension."
- Rejection of perspective and unified space — Traditional European painting since the Renaissance relied on linear perspective to create illusionistic depth, with figures harmoniously placed in a coherent, receding space. Les Demoiselles flattens everything onto the picture plane: no single vanishing point, no consistent light source, no shadows to model form realistically. The figures appear "plastered" onto the canvas, creating a fractured, confrontational surface that assaults the viewer's sense of spatial order.
- Raw, violent distortion of the body — The five nude women (prostitutes in a brothel) are angular, geometric, and fragmented. Faces shift viewpoints (e.g., the crouching figure combines frontal and profile views), bodies are hacked into planes, breasts and limbs jut aggressively. This replaced the idealized, sensual female nude of classical tradition (think Ingres or Bouguereau) with something primal, threatening, and anti-beautiful—described by contemporaries as "hideous whores" or "hacked-up bodies."
- Sexual and psychological confrontation — The figures stare directly and defiantly at the viewer, turning the traditional male gaze into an aggressive encounter. Combined with the brothel subject (originally titled Le Bordel d'Avignon), it carried an air of immorality and danger (linked to fears of venereal disease), amplifying the visual brutality.
The painting remained largely hidden in Picasso's studio for nearly a decade due to the hostile private reactions. It first appeared publicly in July 1916 at the Salon d'Antin in Paris (in an exhibition titled L'Art moderne en France, organized by critic André Salmon, who retitled it Les Demoiselles d'Avignon from the more scandalous Le Bordel d'Avignon to soften its impact). Even then, journalists and audiences were scandalized by the "hacked-up" forms and lack of realism, viewing it as immoral or incomprehensible. A photo had appeared earlier (1910) in The Architectural Record, but widespread acceptance only grew in the 1920s, thanks to supporters like André Breton.
Why This Shock Mattered
The distortions and flattened perspective weren't mere stylistic experiments—they signaled a deliberate "act of destruction" (as Picasso later put it) of 19th-century aesthetics to make way for modernism. It challenged viewers to confront art not as a window onto reality but as an autonomous object with its own aggressive logic. This paved the way for full Analytic Cubism (with Braque) and influenced countless movements, from abstraction to expressionism.Today, the painting's power to unsettle persists—its raw energy still feels confrontational—but it has become a canonical masterpiece, symbolizing the birth of 20th-century art's radical freedom. The initial outrage was exactly what made it revolutionary.
Picasso's preparatory sketches for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) are among the most extensive and revealing in art history. Picasso spent roughly six months—from late 1906 to mid-1907—intensely developing the work in his Montmartre studio. He produced hundreds of sketches, drawings, studies, and even small oil paintings, far more preparatory material than for any other single piece in his career. This obsessive process allowed him to experiment radically, refine the composition, and push toward the revolutionary style that would birth proto-Cubism.
Key Aspects of the Preparatory Work
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.
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 by Sotheby's on November 2, 2005, lot 4.
Significance
These sketches reveal Picasso's methodical destruction of tradition: he tested how to collapse perspective, unify disparate styles (Iberian, African, Cézanne), and make the female nude confrontational rather than passive. They document the shift from a brothel narrative (with moral/medical undertones) to a timeless, abstracted encounter. MoMA and other museums have displayed groups of these studies (e.g., in the 2007 centennial exhibition), underscoring how they trace the birth of modern art's radical experimentation.
The preparatory phase was crucial—Picasso didn't improvise the final canvas; he built it through relentless iteration, making Les Demoiselles a deliberate manifesto rather than spontaneous outburst.
Key Aspects of the Preparatory Work
- Quantity and Variety — Estimates range from hundreds to over 800 individual works (including sketchbook pages, loose sheets, watercolors, gouaches, and oils). Many are in private collections, the Musée Picasso in Paris, MoMA (which holds several), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and institutions like the Kunstmuseum Basel.
- Evolution of the Composition — Early sketches (winter 1906–early 1907) feature a more narrative, horizontal scene with seven figures: five women plus two men (a sailor seated at a table with fruit and a skull, and a medical student entering from the left holding a book or skull). The still life (including phallic watermelon slices) symbolized intrusion into the women's space, tying into themes of mortality, disease, and sexuality. Over time, Picasso eliminated the men, simplified to five women, shifted to a vertical format, flattened space, and intensified frontal confrontation.
- Stylistic Experiments — Initial drawings show Iberian influences (archaic, rounded faces) and Cézanne-like geometric structuring. As African and Oceanic masks entered his vision (spring 1907), faces became more angular and mask-like. He tested multiple viewpoints on single figures (e.g., combining profile and frontal), jagged planes, and aggressive poses. Colors shifted from softer tones to the final stark palette of blues, ochres, pinks, and grays.
- Mediums and Techniques — Pencil, ink, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, gouache, and oil on paper or canvas. Some are quick notations; others are highly finished compositional studies.
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.
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 by Sotheby's on November 2, 2005, lot 4.
Significance
These sketches reveal Picasso's methodical destruction of tradition: he tested how to collapse perspective, unify disparate styles (Iberian, African, Cézanne), and make the female nude confrontational rather than passive. They document the shift from a brothel narrative (with moral/medical undertones) to a timeless, abstracted encounter. MoMA and other museums have displayed groups of these studies (e.g., in the 2007 centennial exhibition), underscoring how they trace the birth of modern art's radical experimentation.
The preparatory phase was crucial—Picasso didn't improvise the final canvas; he built it through relentless iteration, making Les Demoiselles a deliberate manifesto rather than spontaneous outburst.
Special Report
From Les Demoiselles d'Avignon to Analytic Cubism
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) is widely regarded as the pivotal work that sparked the development of Cubism, particularly its first phase, Analytic Cubism (roughly 1909–1912). While not fully Analytic Cubist itself—scholars classify it as proto-Cubist or pre-Cubist—it laid the foundational ideas, techniques, and conceptual breakthroughs that Picasso and Georges Braque systematically explored and refined in the years immediately following.
Proto-Cubist Characteristics in Les Demoiselles
The painting anticipated key elements of Analytic Cubism without fully embodying them:
Transition to Analytic Cubism (1908–1912)
Picasso did not immediately produce full Analytic works after Les Demoiselles. The painting's shock value prompted intense experimentation:
Broader Legacy on Analytic Cubism
Proto-Cubist Characteristics in Les Demoiselles
The painting anticipated key elements of Analytic Cubism without fully embodying them:
- Fragmentation and geometric breakdown — Bodies and space are shattered into angular planes and facets, rejecting smooth, naturalistic modeling.
- Multiple viewpoints — Faces and figures combine frontal, profile, and other angles simultaneously (e.g., the crouching woman's face merges profile and three-quarter views), challenging single-point perspective.
- Flattened space — The picture plane is emphasized over illusionistic depth; figures press forward aggressively, creating a shallow, compressed environment.
- Rejection of traditional illusionism — No consistent light source, shadows, or atmospheric perspective; forms are abstracted and structural rather than representational.
Transition to Analytic Cubism (1908–1912)
Picasso did not immediately produce full Analytic works after Les Demoiselles. The painting's shock value prompted intense experimentation:
- In late 1907 and 1908, Picasso created transitional pieces like Three Women (1908) and still lifes, further simplifying forms into facets and experimenting with Cézanne-inspired geometry.
- Georges Braque, initially shocked by Les Demoiselles, responded directly with works like his 1908 L'Estaque landscapes (e.g., Houses at L'Estaque), rendering buildings and trees as shaded cubes and pyramids. Critic Louis Vauxcelles coined "Cubism" in 1909 after seeing these, derisively calling them full of "cubes."
- By 1909, Picasso and Braque began their close collaboration (often described as inseparable—they even dressed alike and called themselves the "Wright brothers" of art). They worked side-by-side, developing a shared style without signatures to emphasize the collective invention.
- Analytic Cubism emerged fully around 1910–1912: objects and figures are "analyzed" (dissected) into overlapping, translucent facets and planes, often in near-monochromatic palettes (browns, grays, ochres) to focus on structure over color or narrative. Works like Picasso's Girl with a Mandolin (1910) or Braque's Violin and Palette (1909–1910) push fragmentation to near-abstraction while still evoking recognizable subjects through subtle cues (e.g., a bottle neck or musical instrument outline).
Broader Legacy on Analytic Cubism
- It shifted art from representation to analysis of form and space, treating the canvas as an autonomous surface rather than a window.
- The emphasis on structure over illusion influenced not just Analytic Cubism but the entire modernist trajectory toward abstraction.
- MoMA curator Alfred Barr and historians like William Rubin positioned Les Demoiselles as the "birth certificate" of Cubism, marking the transition from 19th-century traditions to 20th-century innovation.
Pablo Picasso's cubist distortions represent one of the most radical innovations in 20th-century art, fundamentally challenging traditional representation. Co-developed with Georges Braque around 1907–1914, Cubism rejected the Renaissance conventions of single-point perspective, naturalistic anatomy, and illusionistic depth. Instead, Picasso and Braque fractured subjects into geometric planes, facets, and interlocking forms—often depicting them from multiple viewpoints simultaneously within a single image. This created deliberate distortions: faces split into profile and frontal views at once, bodies reduced to angular shards, and space flattened into a shallow, relief-like plane. The result emphasized the canvas's two-dimensionality while evoking the complexity of perception and reality.
Picasso famously explained that "a head is a matter of eyes, nose, mouth, which can be distributed in any way you like," underscoring his approach: distortion was not mere exaggeration (though rooted in his early caricature practice) but a deliberate restructuring to capture an object's essence from various angles, times, and mental perspectives. Influenced by Paul Cézanne's emphasis on underlying structure (treating nature as "cubes, spheres, and cones"), African tribal masks (with their stylized, non-naturalistic features), and Iberian sculpture, Picasso's distortions symbolized a break from mimetic realism toward a more intellectual, analytical vision of the world.
Key Examples of Distortions in Picasso's Cubist Works
Picasso famously explained that "a head is a matter of eyes, nose, mouth, which can be distributed in any way you like," underscoring his approach: distortion was not mere exaggeration (though rooted in his early caricature practice) but a deliberate restructuring to capture an object's essence from various angles, times, and mental perspectives. Influenced by Paul Cézanne's emphasis on underlying structure (treating nature as "cubes, spheres, and cones"), African tribal masks (with their stylized, non-naturalistic features), and Iberian sculpture, Picasso's distortions symbolized a break from mimetic realism toward a more intellectual, analytical vision of the world.
Key Examples of Distortions in Picasso's Cubist Works
- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907): Often seen as Cubism's proto-manifesto, this large canvas depicts five nude women in a brothel with violently angular, mask-like faces and bodies fractured into sharp planes. Influences from African art appear in the right figures' stylized features, while Iberian sculpture informs the left. Distortions convey raw power, eroticism, and confrontation—shattering classical beauty and single-viewpoint perspective.
- Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1910): A prime Analytical Cubist portrait of the art dealer. Vollard's face and figure dissolve into a mosaic of crystalline facets and overlapping planes in muted tones. Distortions fracture identity into geometric abstraction, yet the likeness remains recognizable through structural cues—emphasizing multiplicity over singular appearance.
Special Report
Fernande and Eva
Fernande Olivier (born Amélie Lang; 6 June 1881 – 29 January 1966) was a French artist’s model, painter, and memoirist. She is best remembered as Pablo Picasso’s first major muse and companion during his pivotal Rose Period and early Cubist years (roughly 1904–1912). Picasso created over 60 portraits of her, capturing her striking beauty in styles ranging from realistic to increasingly fragmented.
Early Life
Born out of wedlock in Paris as Amélie Lang, she had a difficult childhood. Raised primarily by an aunt and uncle (her mother’s half-sister), she faced pressure to enter an arranged marriage. At around age 17–19, she married Paul Percheron (or a similar name in some accounts), but the union was abusive. She fled the marriage around 1900, adopting the name Fernande Olivier to conceal her identity.
To survive, she worked as an artist’s model in Montmartre, posing for painters including Kees van Dongen and others. Tall, with red hair and classical features, she was known as “la belle Fernande.” She also dabbled in painting and writing.
Relationship with Picasso
Fernande met the 22–23-year-old Picasso in 1904 at the ramshackle Bateau-Lavoir studio building in Montmartre. Picasso was emerging from his Blue Period after personal struggles (including the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas). Their relationship quickly became romantic; by 1905 they were living together.
This was a bohemian, passionate, and often stormy period:
The relationship ended in 1911–1912 when Picasso began an affair with Eva Gouel (Marcelle Humbert). Friends largely sided with Picasso, leaving Fernande isolated.
Later Life
After the breakup, Fernande supported herself through modeling, odd jobs (cashier, antiques seller), and occasional writing and art classes. She remarried (or had another long-term relationship) and faced financial hardship. In the 1930s, she published serialized memoirs in Le Soir, later compiled as Picasso et ses amis (1933). Picasso’s lawyers intervened to limit further revelations.
Her fuller journals appeared posthumously: Souvenirs intimes (1988) and the English edition Loving Picasso: The Private Journal of Fernande Olivier (2001). These provide vivid, insider accounts of bohemian Montmartre life and Picasso’s creative process.She died in Paris on 29 January 1966 at age 84, reportedly in relative poverty. Picasso had reportedly given her some financial help decades earlier.
Legacy
Fernande Olivier stands as Picasso’s first great love and a key figure in his transformation from struggling artist to revolutionary innovator. Her image bridges his more emotional, figurative early work and the birth of Cubism. Unlike later muses, she left her own written legacy, offering rare personal insights into the man and the era.
Recent exhibitions (e.g., at Musée de Montmartre and Museu Picasso Barcelona) have reevaluated her as an independent artist, model, and chronicler—not merely a muse. Her story highlights the complexities of artistic relationships in early 20th-century Paris: passion, creativity, jealousy, and survival.
Eva Gouel (born Eve/Marcelle Humbert, also known as Marcelle Gouel or Eva Gouel; 1885 – 14 December 1915) was a French woman who served as Pablo Picasso’s lover and muse during his pivotal Analytic and Synthetic Cubist periods (roughly 1911–1915). Often called the “queen of Cubism,” she inspired works featuring the affectionate nickname “Ma Jolie” (“My Pretty One”).
Early Life
Little is known about her background. She was born in 1885 in Vincennes, France (near Paris), to Adrian Gouel and Marie-Louise Ghérouze. She sometimes used the name Marcelle Humbert and claimed (possibly fictitiously) to have been married to a man named Humbert. Before meeting Picasso, she was romantically involved with the Cubist sculptor Louis Marcoussis and was a friend of Fernande Olivier (Picasso’s previous partner). Some accounts describe her as small, doll-like, and of delicate health.
Relationship with Picasso
Picasso met Eva (then going by Marcelle Humbert) in late 1911 at the Café Ermitage in Paris, while still involved with Fernande Olivier. Their affair began secretly around that time. After Fernande’s infidelity came to light, Picasso left her in 1912 and openly began his relationship with Eva.Key aspects of their time together:
Illness and Death
In 1913, Eva fell seriously ill (diagnosed with tuberculosis; some accounts mention cancer). Her health declined rapidly. Picasso cared for her during hospitalizations, but he also began a secret affair with another woman (Gaby Depeyre/Lespinasse) while Eva was ill.
Eva Gouel died on 14 December 1915 in Paris at age 30. Picasso was deeply affected and devastated. His 1915 painting Harlequin is often interpreted as reflecting his grief and sorrow.
Legacy
Eva remains somewhat enigmatic compared to Picasso’s other muses, largely because so little independent documentation of her life survives—most knowledge comes through her connection to him. She played a crucial role during his transition to Synthetic Cubism and the incorporation of text and personal references into his art.
Her short life and tragic death highlight the fragility behind the bohemian world of early 20th-century Paris. Picasso moved on (meeting Olga Khokhlova in 1917), but the “Ma Jolie” works endure as tender, coded tributes to their time together. Novels like Madame Picasso (by Anne Girard) have fictionalized her story for modern audiences.
Early Life
Born out of wedlock in Paris as Amélie Lang, she had a difficult childhood. Raised primarily by an aunt and uncle (her mother’s half-sister), she faced pressure to enter an arranged marriage. At around age 17–19, she married Paul Percheron (or a similar name in some accounts), but the union was abusive. She fled the marriage around 1900, adopting the name Fernande Olivier to conceal her identity.
To survive, she worked as an artist’s model in Montmartre, posing for painters including Kees van Dongen and others. Tall, with red hair and classical features, she was known as “la belle Fernande.” She also dabbled in painting and writing.
Relationship with Picasso
Fernande met the 22–23-year-old Picasso in 1904 at the ramshackle Bateau-Lavoir studio building in Montmartre. Picasso was emerging from his Blue Period after personal struggles (including the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas). Their relationship quickly became romantic; by 1905 they were living together.
This was a bohemian, passionate, and often stormy period:
- Both were jealous and unfaithful at times.
- They shared opium-smoking sessions and intense social life with friends like Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, and André Salmon.
- In 1906, they traveled to Barcelona and the remote village of Gósol in the Spanish Pyrenees, a trip that profoundly influenced Picasso’s work.
- In 1909, they spent time in Horta de Sant Joan, where Picasso produced major Cubist portraits and the groundbreaking sculpture Head of Fernande (considered one of the first Cubist sculptures).
The relationship ended in 1911–1912 when Picasso began an affair with Eva Gouel (Marcelle Humbert). Friends largely sided with Picasso, leaving Fernande isolated.
Later Life
After the breakup, Fernande supported herself through modeling, odd jobs (cashier, antiques seller), and occasional writing and art classes. She remarried (or had another long-term relationship) and faced financial hardship. In the 1930s, she published serialized memoirs in Le Soir, later compiled as Picasso et ses amis (1933). Picasso’s lawyers intervened to limit further revelations.
Her fuller journals appeared posthumously: Souvenirs intimes (1988) and the English edition Loving Picasso: The Private Journal of Fernande Olivier (2001). These provide vivid, insider accounts of bohemian Montmartre life and Picasso’s creative process.She died in Paris on 29 January 1966 at age 84, reportedly in relative poverty. Picasso had reportedly given her some financial help decades earlier.
Legacy
Fernande Olivier stands as Picasso’s first great love and a key figure in his transformation from struggling artist to revolutionary innovator. Her image bridges his more emotional, figurative early work and the birth of Cubism. Unlike later muses, she left her own written legacy, offering rare personal insights into the man and the era.
Recent exhibitions (e.g., at Musée de Montmartre and Museu Picasso Barcelona) have reevaluated her as an independent artist, model, and chronicler—not merely a muse. Her story highlights the complexities of artistic relationships in early 20th-century Paris: passion, creativity, jealousy, and survival.
Eva Gouel (born Eve/Marcelle Humbert, also known as Marcelle Gouel or Eva Gouel; 1885 – 14 December 1915) was a French woman who served as Pablo Picasso’s lover and muse during his pivotal Analytic and Synthetic Cubist periods (roughly 1911–1915). Often called the “queen of Cubism,” she inspired works featuring the affectionate nickname “Ma Jolie” (“My Pretty One”).
Early Life
Little is known about her background. She was born in 1885 in Vincennes, France (near Paris), to Adrian Gouel and Marie-Louise Ghérouze. She sometimes used the name Marcelle Humbert and claimed (possibly fictitiously) to have been married to a man named Humbert. Before meeting Picasso, she was romantically involved with the Cubist sculptor Louis Marcoussis and was a friend of Fernande Olivier (Picasso’s previous partner). Some accounts describe her as small, doll-like, and of delicate health.
Relationship with Picasso
Picasso met Eva (then going by Marcelle Humbert) in late 1911 at the Café Ermitage in Paris, while still involved with Fernande Olivier. Their affair began secretly around that time. After Fernande’s infidelity came to light, Picasso left her in 1912 and openly began his relationship with Eva.Key aspects of their time together:
- Picasso renamed her Eva Gouel (or Eve) and expressed deep affection, signing works with “Ma Jolie” or incorporating her name and phrases like “J’aime Eva” into Cubist collages and paintings.
- They traveled together, including to Céret in the French Pyrenees (1912–1913) and other spots in the South of France. They visited Picasso’s family in Barcelona and reportedly discussed marriage.
- Eva provided emotional stability and inspiration during Picasso’s intense Cubist experimentation with collage, fragmented forms, and still lifes. She is the hidden subject of major works like Woman with a Guitar (Ma Jolie) (1911–1912, MoMA) and other compositions from 1912–1914.
- During the early months of World War I (1914), they stayed in the South of France to avoid drama with Fernande and the stresses of Paris.
Illness and Death
In 1913, Eva fell seriously ill (diagnosed with tuberculosis; some accounts mention cancer). Her health declined rapidly. Picasso cared for her during hospitalizations, but he also began a secret affair with another woman (Gaby Depeyre/Lespinasse) while Eva was ill.
Eva Gouel died on 14 December 1915 in Paris at age 30. Picasso was deeply affected and devastated. His 1915 painting Harlequin is often interpreted as reflecting his grief and sorrow.
Legacy
Eva remains somewhat enigmatic compared to Picasso’s other muses, largely because so little independent documentation of her life survives—most knowledge comes through her connection to him. She played a crucial role during his transition to Synthetic Cubism and the incorporation of text and personal references into his art.
Her short life and tragic death highlight the fragility behind the bohemian world of early 20th-century Paris. Picasso moved on (meeting Olga Khokhlova in 1917), but the “Ma Jolie” works endure as tender, coded tributes to their time together. Novels like Madame Picasso (by Anne Girard) have fictionalized her story for modern audiences.
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. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
New York Times Arts @nytimesarts Jun 23, 2016
Picasso’s ‘Femme Assise’ Sells for $63.7 Million, an Auction High for Cubism http://nyti.ms/28NHzrY
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. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
New York Times Arts @nytimesarts Jun 23, 2016
Picasso’s ‘Femme Assise’ Sells for $63.7 Million, an Auction High for Cubism http://nyti.ms/28NHzrY
- The 2016 Sotheby's auction of Picasso's 1909 Cubist painting "Femme Assise" fetched $63.7 million, establishing a record for any Cubist work that remains unbroken as of 2025, highlighting the scarcity of early analytic Cubism pieces in private hands.
- Depicting a seated woman through fragmented geometric forms in muted blues and ochres, the oil-on-canvas measures 81 by 60 inches and exemplifies Picasso's shift toward abstraction alongside Braque.
- The sale, part of a $151.9 million evening total, reflected booming demand for Modernist art amid post-recession market recovery, with the painting bought anonymously after competitive bidding.
1910-1939 Tête de Femme (Fernande)
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.
Tête de Femme (Fernande) (also known as Head of a Woman (Fernande) or Woman's Head (Fernande)) is a seminal 1909 sculpture by Pablo Picasso, widely regarded as his first major Cubist sculpture and a breakthrough in translating the fragmented, multi-perspective forms of Analytic Cubism into three dimensions.
Intention, Inspiration, and Iterations
Picasso created the work in the autumn of 1909 in Paris, shortly after spending the summer with his partner and muse Fernande Olivier in Horta de Ebro (now Horta de Sant Joan), Spain. That summer profoundly influenced his Cubist development through the village's angular architecture, rocky landscapes, and shifting light, which inspired faceted planes and simultaneous viewpoints in his paintings (e.g., Houses on the Hill, Horta de Ebro).
Fernande Olivier (born Amélie Lang) was Picasso's lover and primary model from around 1904–1912. She inspired dozens of works in 1909 alone (over 60 portraits/drawings/sculptures). The sculpture captures her distinctive features—high cheekbones, almond eyes, strong nose, and elegant neck—but abstracts them into geometric, faceted forms with sharp edges, recesses, and protruding planes that suggest volume, movement, and multiple angles. The head tilts dynamically, with light and shadow animating the surface.
Process and iterations: Picasso modeled the original directly in clay, building up mass and carving away material in a dynamic, additive-subtractive process that preserved tension and energy in the final form. He refined it further in plaster (sharpening edges and facets while damp). There were multiple plasters: one early (now on long-term loan to Tate, London) and a second (Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, post-1960 from a mold of the first). These served as models for bronzes.
This marked a breakthrough: Picasso's first significant sculpture since earlier, more traditional or experimental works (e.g., 1905–1906 heads). It synthesized his pictorial Cubist experiments into 3D, emphasizing structure, mass, and perceptual shift over literal resemblance—paving the way for his later sculptural innovations.
History in Clay and Bronze
The work gained early prominence: Alfred Stieglitz acquired and published a cast in Camera Work (1912); exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show; shown in Prague (1913); and widely illustrated/praised in early monographs.
Estimating Casting Dates of Vollard Examples
Vollard casts lack consistent numbering or foundry marks that precisely date them, making estimation challenging. Key methods include:
Legacy
This sculpture solidified Picasso's sculptural reputation and helped establish Cubism's 3D language. It influenced 20th-century sculpture by prioritizing conceptual structure, light/shadow interplay, and viewer engagement over traditional modeling. It remains a cornerstone of Cubist collections, frequently exhibited and studied as a bridge between Picasso's painting and later bronzes/assemblages.
Comparison and Dating of the Two Christie's Lots (see below)
Both are signed Vollard-era bronze casts with dark brown patina of the 1909 conception (Tête de femme (Fernande)). They are high-quality examples from the primary series.
These pieces exemplify Picasso's Cubist revolution in sculpture and remain highly sought-after. For precise authentication/dating of specific casts, consult a specialist with access to technical reports or the Spies catalogue raisonné.
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.
Tête de Femme (Fernande) (also known as Head of a Woman (Fernande) or Woman's Head (Fernande)) is a seminal 1909 sculpture by Pablo Picasso, widely regarded as his first major Cubist sculpture and a breakthrough in translating the fragmented, multi-perspective forms of Analytic Cubism into three dimensions.
Intention, Inspiration, and Iterations
Picasso created the work in the autumn of 1909 in Paris, shortly after spending the summer with his partner and muse Fernande Olivier in Horta de Ebro (now Horta de Sant Joan), Spain. That summer profoundly influenced his Cubist development through the village's angular architecture, rocky landscapes, and shifting light, which inspired faceted planes and simultaneous viewpoints in his paintings (e.g., Houses on the Hill, Horta de Ebro).
Fernande Olivier (born Amélie Lang) was Picasso's lover and primary model from around 1904–1912. She inspired dozens of works in 1909 alone (over 60 portraits/drawings/sculptures). The sculpture captures her distinctive features—high cheekbones, almond eyes, strong nose, and elegant neck—but abstracts them into geometric, faceted forms with sharp edges, recesses, and protruding planes that suggest volume, movement, and multiple angles. The head tilts dynamically, with light and shadow animating the surface.
Process and iterations: Picasso modeled the original directly in clay, building up mass and carving away material in a dynamic, additive-subtractive process that preserved tension and energy in the final form. He refined it further in plaster (sharpening edges and facets while damp). There were multiple plasters: one early (now on long-term loan to Tate, London) and a second (Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, post-1960 from a mold of the first). These served as models for bronzes.
This marked a breakthrough: Picasso's first significant sculpture since earlier, more traditional or experimental works (e.g., 1905–1906 heads). It synthesized his pictorial Cubist experiments into 3D, emphasizing structure, mass, and perceptual shift over literal resemblance—paving the way for his later sculptural innovations.
History in Clay and Bronze
- Clay original (1909): Acquired by dealer Ambroise Vollard in 1910 (or possibly 1909–1910), who recognized its importance and arranged casting.
- Bronze casts: Vollard commissioned casts (primarily lost-wax process) at foundries like Désiré/Florentin Godard in Paris. No strict limited edition or numbering initially; casts were produced on demand/as needed, likely starting around 1910–1911 but with many post-WWI (into the 1920s–1930s, up to Vollard's death in 1939). Roughly 20 known Vollard-era casts exist, mostly in museums (e.g., MoMA, Met, Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery Prague, etc.).
The work gained early prominence: Alfred Stieglitz acquired and published a cast in Camera Work (1912); exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show; shown in Prague (1913); and widely illustrated/praised in early monographs.
Estimating Casting Dates of Vollard Examples
Vollard casts lack consistent numbering or foundry marks that precisely date them, making estimation challenging. Key methods include:
- Provenance and ownership history: Early documented owners (e.g., Stieglitz ~1912, or pre-WWI collections) point to earlier casts (c. 1910–1912). Post-WWI acquisitions suggest later ones.
- Patina and surface quality: Early casts often show richer, more varied dark brown patinas from Godard foundries; compare to documented examples.
- Technical analysis: Foundry marks (if present), casting seams, or underside details. Collaborative studies (e.g., 2016 technical research on plasters/casts) compare to the Tate/Nasher plasters. Vollard casts used the early plaster model.
- Literature and exhibition records: Cross-reference with early photos/illustrations (e.g., Camera Work 1912) or catalogs like Spies (1971) or Fletcher's technical essay.
- Dimensions and minor variations: Slight differences in height/finish (e.g., one Christie's lot ~41.9 cm, another ~40.8 cm) may hint at casting nuances, though not definitive.
Legacy
This sculpture solidified Picasso's sculptural reputation and helped establish Cubism's 3D language. It influenced 20th-century sculpture by prioritizing conceptual structure, light/shadow interplay, and viewer engagement over traditional modeling. It remains a cornerstone of Cubist collections, frequently exhibited and studied as a bridge between Picasso's painting and later bronzes/assemblages.
Comparison and Dating of the Two Christie's Lots (see below)
Both are signed Vollard-era bronze casts with dark brown patina of the 1909 conception (Tête de femme (Fernande)). They are high-quality examples from the primary series.
- Lot 6368780 (Met deaccession, sold 2022): Height 16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm). Provenance: Possibly Vollard → Kaeser → Buchholz/Valentin → Marx/Schoenborn → Met (bequest 1995). Extensively published; strong early associations. Likely an earlier or mid-period Vollard cast (possibly 1910s–1920s), given the provenance chain reaching back potentially to the 1940s/1950s acquisitions.
- Lot 6585083 (Newhouse collection): Height 16 1/8 in. (40.8 cm). Provenance: Probably Vollard → René & Jeanne Gaffé (by 1960) → their estate sale (Christie's 2001) → private → Newhouse. Also extensively published. Slight size variation is minor/common in hand casts. Likely comparable period to the other (Vollard-era, pre-1939), with documented mid-20th-century ownership.
These pieces exemplify Picasso's Cubist revolution in sculpture and remain highly sought-after. For precise authentication/dating of specific casts, consult a specialist with access to technical reports or the Spies catalogue raisonné.
Special Report
Influence on Boccioni and Brancusi
The exhibition of that Tête de Femme by Vollard in his gallery certainly influenced the development of modern sculpture by Boccioni and Brancusi.
Influence on Boccioni
Boccioni (a key Futurist) encountered Cubist ideas during his 1912 Paris visit, including Picasso’s fragmented forms. Picasso’s 1909 head provided a concrete 3D realization of the faceted, multi-viewpoint approach Picasso had explored in painting (e.g., Fernande portraits from Horta de Ebro). Scholars note that it helped Boccioni visualize translating Cubist painting experiments into sculpture.
Relation to Brancusi
Brancusi (in Paris from 1904) developed his own radically simplified, essentialist style rooted in Romanian folk traditions, African art, and Cycladic sculpture—often paralleling but diverging from Cubism. His works emphasize smooth, ovoid volumes and direct carving over Picasso’s faceted modeling.
Vollard’s promotion helped circulate the sculpture among artists (e.g., via sales, photos in Camera Work, and the 1913 Armory Show). It amplified Picasso’s breakthrough as the first major Cubist sculpture, inspiring the broader shift toward constructed, non-traditional forms in the 1910s. Artists like Archipenko, Lipchitz, and Duchamp-Villon also engaged with these ideas.
The statement referenced above captures a real thread of influence—especially on Boccioni—but art history emphasizes indirect, competitive, and multifaceted exchanges in the explosive pre-WWI Parisian scene. Picasso’s piece was catalytic rather than the sole source. For deeper dives, technical studies or exhibitions on Cubist/Futurist sculpture provide excellent comparisons.
Influence on Boccioni
Boccioni (a key Futurist) encountered Cubist ideas during his 1912 Paris visit, including Picasso’s fragmented forms. Picasso’s 1909 head provided a concrete 3D realization of the faceted, multi-viewpoint approach Picasso had explored in painting (e.g., Fernande portraits from Horta de Ebro). Scholars note that it helped Boccioni visualize translating Cubist painting experiments into sculpture.
- Vollard owned the clay original (acquired ~1910) and cast bronzes on demand. The work appeared in his gallery context around 1910–1912 (one source mentions winter 1911), amid growing buzz about modern sculpture.
- This visibility contributed to the climate of innovation. Boccioni’s Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture (1912) and his 1913 exhibition responded to (and competed with) expectations around Picasso’s work. His early sculptural experiments (e.g., mother portraits) show echoes of Picasso’s structural fragmentation, though Boccioni pushed toward dynamism, movement, and mixed materials while critiquing Cubist “analysis.”
Relation to Brancusi
Brancusi (in Paris from 1904) developed his own radically simplified, essentialist style rooted in Romanian folk traditions, African art, and Cycladic sculpture—often paralleling but diverging from Cubism. His works emphasize smooth, ovoid volumes and direct carving over Picasso’s faceted modeling.
- No strong evidence directly ties the Vollard exhibition of Tête de Femme to a pivotal shift in Brancusi’s development. Their relationship was complex: contemporaries in the same circles (with mutual awareness), but Brancusi reportedly viewed Picasso as more of a “thief” or showman at times, while Picasso drew from Brancusi’s simplified forms (e.g., in some heads).
- Both advanced abstraction in sculpture, but along different paths: Picasso’s analytic fragmentation vs. Brancusi’s synthetic reduction. Shared Parisian avant-garde exposure (including primitive arts) likely created parallel evolutions rather than linear influence from this specific piece.
Vollard’s promotion helped circulate the sculpture among artists (e.g., via sales, photos in Camera Work, and the 1913 Armory Show). It amplified Picasso’s breakthrough as the first major Cubist sculpture, inspiring the broader shift toward constructed, non-traditional forms in the 1910s. Artists like Archipenko, Lipchitz, and Duchamp-Villon also engaged with these ideas.
The statement referenced above captures a real thread of influence—especially on Boccioni—but art history emphasizes indirect, competitive, and multifaceted exchanges in the explosive pre-WWI Parisian scene. Picasso’s piece was catalytic rather than the sole source. For deeper dives, technical studies or exhibitions on Cubist/Futurist sculpture provide excellent comparisons.
ex Newhouse
2026 for sale on May 14 by Christie's
A 40.8 cm high bronze with dark brown patina is estimated $ 40M for sale by Christie's on May 18, 2026, lot 2A.
ex Met Museum
2022 SOLD for $ 48M by Christie's
A 41.9 cm high bronze with dark brown patina 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.
Special Report
Synthetic Cubism
The evolution to Synthetic Cubism represents a natural and deliberate progression from Analytic Cubism (c. 1909/1910–1912), marking a shift in Picasso and Braque's approach from deconstruction to reconstruction. While Analytic Cubism dissected objects into fragmented facets and multiple viewpoints in a near-monochromatic palette to "analyze" form and structure, Synthetic Cubism (generally dated from 1912 to 1914, with influences extending to around 1919) synthesized or built up compositions from simpler shapes, bolder colors, and—most revolutionary—real-world materials.
This phase reversed many of Analytic Cubism's austere tendencies: instead of breaking down reality into overlapping planes that often rendered subjects nearly illegible, artists now constructed clearer, more decorative images that emphasized the flatness of the canvas while incorporating elements of everyday life. The goal evolved from intellectual analysis to playful synthesis, questioning representation by blending illusion with tangible reality.
Timeline and Key Developments
Here are iconic examples from the transition and Synthetic phase:(Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912 – the breakthrough collage with oilcloth and rope.)(Braque, Fruit Dish and Glass, 1912 – first papier collé with wallpaper.)(Picasso, Guitar, Sheet Music, and Glass, 1912 – vibrant Synthetic still life with collage.)(Juan Gris, The Open Window, 1917 – later Synthetic clarity with bold color and structure.)
Legacy
Synthetic Cubism pioneered collage as a major 20th-century technique, directly influencing Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art, and assemblage sculpture (e.g., Picasso's 1912 Maquette for Guitar). It expanded art's materials beyond paint, challenged notions of originality and illusion, and affirmed the canvas as a constructed object rather than a mimetic window. This phase solidified Cubism's revolutionary status, shifting modernism toward materiality and hybridity.
This phase reversed many of Analytic Cubism's austere tendencies: instead of breaking down reality into overlapping planes that often rendered subjects nearly illegible, artists now constructed clearer, more decorative images that emphasized the flatness of the canvas while incorporating elements of everyday life. The goal evolved from intellectual analysis to playful synthesis, questioning representation by blending illusion with tangible reality.
Timeline and Key Developments
- Late Analytic Phase (1911–1912): Signs of transition appear. Picasso and Braque experiment with texture (e.g., adding sand to paint for roughness) and lettering (painted words or numbers). Works become less hermetic, with slightly larger facets and hints of color returning.
- 1912: Birth of Synthetic Cubism — The pivotal innovation is papier collé (pasted paper), a subset of collage using paper elements. This technique, initiated by Braque and rapidly adopted by Picasso, introduced actual pieces of the real world onto the canvas, blurring art and life.
- Georges Braque's Fruit Dish and Glass (September 1912) — Often credited as the first true papier collé: charcoal, wallpaper fragments, and gouache on paper. Braque pasted wallpaper imitating wood grain to evoke a table or fruit dish.
- Pablo Picasso's Still Life with Chair Caning (May–June 1912) — Predates Braque's; an oval canvas with oilcloth printed to mimic chair caning, newspaper fragments, rope frame, and painted elements. The famous "Jou" (from "journal" or "jeu"/game) pun plays on representation.
- 1912–1914: Full Synthetic Phase — Picasso, Braque, and Juan Gris (who joined prominently around 1911 and excelled in clarity) develop bolder palettes (bright blues, yellows, reds, greens), larger simplified planes, and collage/mixed media. Depth is suggested through overlapping but remains shallow; subjects (still lifes, occasional figures) are more recognizable.
- Post-1914: World War I disrupts collaboration (Braque serves in the army; Picasso continues). Synthetic elements persist in their work and influence others until around 1919, when Surrealism rises. Some historians (e.g., Douglas Cooper) extend "Late Cubism" to 1921.
- Reintroduction of color — Vibrant, varied hues replace Analytic's muted grays/browns/ochres.
- Simpler, larger forms — Fewer overlapping planes; bolder, more decorative shapes.
- Collage and texture — Papier collé, real materials (newspaper, wallpaper, fabric, sand, rope), creating tactile surfaces and puns on reality (e.g., printed wood grain standing for wood).
- Flattened space — Emphasis on the picture plane as an object itself, with less illusionistic depth.
- Synthesis over analysis — Building up from parts (colors, patterns, materials) to evoke the whole, rather than dissecting.
- Reaction to Analytic Cubism's limits — The extreme abstraction risked losing connection to the visible world; Synthetic reasserted it through real fragments.
- Everyday life and mass media — Newspaper clippings referenced current events, urban culture, and the "real" in art.
- Broader context — Continued Cézanne influence (geometric simplification) but pushed further into materiality.
Here are iconic examples from the transition and Synthetic phase:(Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912 – the breakthrough collage with oilcloth and rope.)(Braque, Fruit Dish and Glass, 1912 – first papier collé with wallpaper.)(Picasso, Guitar, Sheet Music, and Glass, 1912 – vibrant Synthetic still life with collage.)(Juan Gris, The Open Window, 1917 – later Synthetic clarity with bold color and structure.)
Legacy
Synthetic Cubism pioneered collage as a major 20th-century technique, directly influencing Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art, and assemblage sculpture (e.g., Picasso's 1912 Maquette for Guitar). It expanded art's materials beyond paint, challenged notions of originality and illusion, and affirmed the canvas as a constructed object rather than a mimetic window. This phase solidified Cubism's revolutionary status, shifting modernism toward materiality and hybridity.
1913 Homme à la Guitare
2026 for sale on May 18 by Christie's
The Pablo Picasso 1913 canvas highlighted in preliminary announcements for Christie's May 2026 evening sales (as part of the S.I. Newhouse collection) is Man with a Guitar (also known as Homme à la guitare), a key work from the height of Picasso's Synthetic Cubism period. Sale on May 18, lot 3A.
Background and Acquisition by Newhouse
In 2000, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) deaccessioned the painting to raise funds for acquisitions and expansions. Newhouse, then a MoMA trustee, resigned from the board to purchase it (reportedly for around $10 million via dealer Larry Gagosian, who handled the transaction). This move avoided any conflict-of-interest issues under museum guidelines at the time. The painting had been in MoMA's collection previously (gift of financier André Meyer). It has remained in Newhouse's holdings since and has not appeared at public auction.
This 1913 work fits squarely in Picasso's transition from Analytic to Synthetic Cubism (roughly 1912–1914), where he and Georges Braque moved toward brighter colors, flatter planes, and the incorporation of collage-like elements or simulated textures (e.g., wood grain, printed patterns) while still fragmenting forms.
Artistic Context and Key Features
1913 was a pivotal year for Cubism. Picasso produced numerous still lifes and figure compositions exploring the guitar (a recurring motif symbolizing music, everyday life, and Spanish heritage) alongside bottles, newspapers, and human figures. Man with a Guitar represents a seated male figure holding or positioned with a guitar, broken into geometric planes, overlapping facets, and bold color blocks. Typical of Synthetic Cubism:
Comparable 1913 Cubist canvases by Picasso measure in the medium-to-large range, often around 100–130 cm in one dimension.
Significance and Legacy
Man with a Guitar stands as a prime example of Picasso's inventive peak in Cubism, a movement that dismantled Renaissance conventions and laid groundwork for 20th-century abstraction. It reflects Picasso's fascination with musical instruments (guitars appear frequently from 1912 onward) as symbols of harmony amid fragmentation—perhaps echoing the cultural atmosphere before World War I. The painting's deaccession from MoMA sparked debate about museum practices, but its quality as a "museum-grade" work has kept it in elite private hands.
Background and Acquisition by Newhouse
In 2000, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) deaccessioned the painting to raise funds for acquisitions and expansions. Newhouse, then a MoMA trustee, resigned from the board to purchase it (reportedly for around $10 million via dealer Larry Gagosian, who handled the transaction). This move avoided any conflict-of-interest issues under museum guidelines at the time. The painting had been in MoMA's collection previously (gift of financier André Meyer). It has remained in Newhouse's holdings since and has not appeared at public auction.
This 1913 work fits squarely in Picasso's transition from Analytic to Synthetic Cubism (roughly 1912–1914), where he and Georges Braque moved toward brighter colors, flatter planes, and the incorporation of collage-like elements or simulated textures (e.g., wood grain, printed patterns) while still fragmenting forms.
Artistic Context and Key Features
1913 was a pivotal year for Cubism. Picasso produced numerous still lifes and figure compositions exploring the guitar (a recurring motif symbolizing music, everyday life, and Spanish heritage) alongside bottles, newspapers, and human figures. Man with a Guitar represents a seated male figure holding or positioned with a guitar, broken into geometric planes, overlapping facets, and bold color blocks. Typical of Synthetic Cubism:
- Fragmented but more legible forms compared to the earlier, more monochromatic Analytic phase.
- Use of flat, decorative elements with hints of texture or pattern.
- Play between representation and abstraction—viewers discern the man (head, torso, perhaps a face) and guitar amid shifting planes and spatial ambiguity.
- Vibrant yet structured palette, often with greens, blues, browns, and earth tones, emphasizing compositional rhythm over illusionistic depth.
Comparable 1913 Cubist canvases by Picasso measure in the medium-to-large range, often around 100–130 cm in one dimension.
Significance and Legacy
Man with a Guitar stands as a prime example of Picasso's inventive peak in Cubism, a movement that dismantled Renaissance conventions and laid groundwork for 20th-century abstraction. It reflects Picasso's fascination with musical instruments (guitars appear frequently from 1912 onward) as symbols of harmony amid fragmentation—perhaps echoing the cultural atmosphere before World War I. The painting's deaccession from MoMA sparked debate about museum practices, but its quality as a "museum-grade" work has kept it in elite private hands.
The Pablo Picasso 1913 canvas from the S.I. Newhouse collection, Man with a Guitar (Homme à la guitare), is a prime example of Synthetic Cubism at its early height. It depicts a seated male figure integrated with a guitar through fragmented geometric planes, overlapping forms, bold color blocks (often greens, blues, browns, and earth tones), and flattened spatial ambiguity. The guitar serves as both a musical motif and a structural element, with hints of the instrument's body, neck, and strings emerging amid the composition. This work emphasizes construction over deconstruction—using flatter, more decorative surfaces and simulated textures (e.g., faux wood grain or patterns) compared to the earlier, more monochromatic and densely faceted Analytic Cubism (1909–1912).
Comparison to Other Picasso Guitar Works
Picasso returned obsessively to the guitar motif from 1912–1914 (and sporadically later), using it to pioneer new techniques and mark the shift to Synthetic Cubism. The Newhouse Man with a Guitar stands out for its figure-plus-instrument hybrid nature and strong museum provenance (formerly MoMA).
Comparison to Other Picasso Guitar Works
Picasso returned obsessively to the guitar motif from 1912–1914 (and sporadically later), using it to pioneer new techniques and mark the shift to Synthetic Cubism. The Newhouse Man with a Guitar stands out for its figure-plus-instrument hybrid nature and strong museum provenance (formerly MoMA).
- Analytic vs. Synthetic Phase Guitars (1912–1913): Earlier Analytic works (e.g., Man with a Guitar, 1912, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art) break forms into smaller, overlapping facets with a muted, earthy palette and greater spatial complexity, making the guitar harder to "read." The 1913 Newhouse canvas moves toward Synthetic clarity: larger planes, brighter or more contrasting colors, and a more legible (yet still abstracted) integration of man and guitar. It feels more constructed and playful, incorporating cafe-like or everyday references. Picasso's Still Life with a Guitar (or similar Synthetic still life, e.g., Guitar, Glass, and Bottle, 1913), is showing a tabletop arrangement with wood grain, newspaper fragments, and bold color blocks—more still-life focused than the figure-oriented Newhouse work.
- Woman with a Guitar (1913, Norton Simon Museum): Very close in date and style to the Newhouse piece. It also exemplifies early Synthetic Cubism, with a vertical composition suggesting a female figure holding a guitar amid cafe elements (faux-marble paneling). Both use fragmented facial features, hand/guitar motifs, and flattened planes, but Woman with a Guitar has a more pronounced vertical axis and interior setting. The Newhouse Man with a Guitar may emphasize a broader, seated pose with stronger horizontal rhythm.
- Still Lifes and Constructions (1912–1914): Many guitar works are tabletop still lifes (e.g., Guitar on a Table variants or Guitar, Sheet Music, Glass). These often incorporate collage elements (newspaper, wallpaper) and are more purely object-focused, without a full human figure. Picasso's famous cardboard/metal Guitar constructions (1912 and 1914, now at MoMA) push the motif into three dimensions, influencing sculpture. The Newhouse canvas bridges painting and these experiments—more painted "construction" than pure still life.
- Later Guitars: Post-1914 examples (e.g., 1920s neoclassical or 1930s Surrealist-inflected) become more colorful, curvilinear, or eroticized (guitar as female form), moving away from strict Cubist fragmentation.
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.
Special Report
Olga
Olga Khokhlova (born Olga Stepanovna Khokhlova; 17 June 1891 – 11 February 1955) was a Russian ballet dancer with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. She became Pablo Picasso’s first wife, an early muse, and the mother of his eldest son, Paulo. Their marriage (1918–1955, though separated from 1935) marked Picasso’s shift from bohemian avant-garde life to a more bourgeois, neoclassical phase in the late 1910s and early 1920s.
Early Life
Born in Nizhyn (then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine) to Stepan Khokhlov, a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army, and his wife Lydia. She came from a relatively privileged but not aristocratic background. In 1912, she joined the prestigious Ballets Russes in Paris, performing in works like Afternoon of a Faun. The 1917 Russian Revolution cut her off from her family; her father and brothers were reportedly killed, and she remained in Western Europe as an émigré.
Meeting Picasso and Marriage
Picasso met the 26-year-old Olga in spring 1917 in Rome while designing sets and costumes for the ballet Parade (music by Erik Satie, libretto by Jean Cocteau). He was captivated by her elegance and classical beauty. After a courtship, they married on 12 July 1918 in a dual ceremony: civil at the Paris city hall and religious at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Witnesses included Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Guillaume Apollinaire.
Picasso, seeking stability after the turbulence of his earlier years, signed a marriage contract that would divide his property equally in case of divorce—a decision he later regretted.
Married Life and Family
The couple settled in Paris (near the Champs-Élysées), living a relatively luxurious lifestyle that contrasted with Picasso’s previous bohemianism. Olga introduced bourgeois refinements and social aspirations. Their son, Paul (Paulo) Picasso, was born on 4 February 1921. This was a happy period: Picasso produced many tender, neoclassical portraits of Olga—elegant, with serious eyes and straight nose—and family scenes, including images of mother and child or Paulo in harlequin costumes.By the mid-1920s, tensions grew. Olga’s desire for conventional domestic life clashed with Picasso’s restless, domineering personality and need for freedom. The marriage deteriorated amid his infidelities.
Separation and Later Years
In 1927, Picasso began his secret affair with the teenage Marie-Thérèse Walter. Olga discovered it and was devastated. They formally separated in 1935 (the year Marie-Thérèse gave birth to Maya). Olga refused divorce, and Picasso—unwilling to lose half his works and wealth under the marriage contract—never pursued it. They remained legally married until her death.
Olga lived in the South of France (Cannes area), often moving between hotels, financially supported but isolated. Many friends sided with Picasso. She suffered from health issues and emotional distress. Picasso reportedly showed little sympathy, focusing on new relationships.
Death and Legacy
Olga died of cancer on 11 February 1955 in Cannes at age 63. Picasso did not attend her funeral. She is buried in Cannes.As a muse, Olga inspired Picasso’s neoclassical period—portraits that are among his most realistic and harmonious. Exhibitions like “Olga Picasso” (Musée Picasso, Paris, 2017) have revisited her role, highlighting her influence on his life and art beyond the “tragic first wife” narrative. Her son Paulo (who struggled with health and personal issues) had two children: Marina and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, who have been involved in the family legacy.
Olga’s story reflects the complexities of Picasso’s relationships: initial passion and stability giving way to pain, control, and enduring legal bonds. She represents the transition in his life from the Montparnasse avant-garde to international fame, and the personal costs behind his artistic evolution.
Early Life
Born in Nizhyn (then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine) to Stepan Khokhlov, a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army, and his wife Lydia. She came from a relatively privileged but not aristocratic background. In 1912, she joined the prestigious Ballets Russes in Paris, performing in works like Afternoon of a Faun. The 1917 Russian Revolution cut her off from her family; her father and brothers were reportedly killed, and she remained in Western Europe as an émigré.
Meeting Picasso and Marriage
Picasso met the 26-year-old Olga in spring 1917 in Rome while designing sets and costumes for the ballet Parade (music by Erik Satie, libretto by Jean Cocteau). He was captivated by her elegance and classical beauty. After a courtship, they married on 12 July 1918 in a dual ceremony: civil at the Paris city hall and religious at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Witnesses included Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Guillaume Apollinaire.
Picasso, seeking stability after the turbulence of his earlier years, signed a marriage contract that would divide his property equally in case of divorce—a decision he later regretted.
Married Life and Family
The couple settled in Paris (near the Champs-Élysées), living a relatively luxurious lifestyle that contrasted with Picasso’s previous bohemianism. Olga introduced bourgeois refinements and social aspirations. Their son, Paul (Paulo) Picasso, was born on 4 February 1921. This was a happy period: Picasso produced many tender, neoclassical portraits of Olga—elegant, with serious eyes and straight nose—and family scenes, including images of mother and child or Paulo in harlequin costumes.By the mid-1920s, tensions grew. Olga’s desire for conventional domestic life clashed with Picasso’s restless, domineering personality and need for freedom. The marriage deteriorated amid his infidelities.
Separation and Later Years
In 1927, Picasso began his secret affair with the teenage Marie-Thérèse Walter. Olga discovered it and was devastated. They formally separated in 1935 (the year Marie-Thérèse gave birth to Maya). Olga refused divorce, and Picasso—unwilling to lose half his works and wealth under the marriage contract—never pursued it. They remained legally married until her death.
Olga lived in the South of France (Cannes area), often moving between hotels, financially supported but isolated. Many friends sided with Picasso. She suffered from health issues and emotional distress. Picasso reportedly showed little sympathy, focusing on new relationships.
Death and Legacy
Olga died of cancer on 11 February 1955 in Cannes at age 63. Picasso did not attend her funeral. She is buried in Cannes.As a muse, Olga inspired Picasso’s neoclassical period—portraits that are among his most realistic and harmonious. Exhibitions like “Olga Picasso” (Musée Picasso, Paris, 2017) have revisited her role, highlighting her influence on his life and art beyond the “tragic first wife” narrative. Her son Paulo (who struggled with health and personal issues) had two children: Marina and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, who have been involved in the family legacy.
Olga’s story reflects the complexities of Picasso’s relationships: initial passion and stability giving way to pain, control, and enduring legal bonds. She represents the transition in his life from the Montparnasse avant-garde to international fame, and the personal costs behind his artistic evolution.
(1917)-1920 Olga
2017 SOLD for $ 30.5M by Christie's
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, was sold for $ 30.5M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, 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, was sold for $ 30.5M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, 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.
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.
Guitare sur un Tapis Rouge, painted in 1922, is another variant in his quest for a flat geometry in exuberant colors, in a post war global quest of a return to quietness that was also exercised by Braque, Gris, Léger and by the austere purisme of Ozenfant. This oil on canvas 80 x 116 cm was sold for £ 10.7M by Sotheby's on June 25, 2024, lot 25. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 15, 2022
#AuctionUpdate: In its auction debut, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guitare sur une table’ achieves a staggering $37.1 million tonight. This rare Cubist painting has been in the private collection of William S. Paley since 1946. #SothebysModern
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.
Guitare sur un Tapis Rouge, painted in 1922, is another variant in his quest for a flat geometry in exuberant colors, in a post war global quest of a return to quietness that was also exercised by Braque, Gris, Léger and by the austere purisme of Ozenfant. This oil on canvas 80 x 116 cm was sold for £ 10.7M by Sotheby's on June 25, 2024, lot 25. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 15, 2022
#AuctionUpdate: In its auction debut, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guitare sur une table’ achieves a staggering $37.1 million tonight. This rare Cubist painting has been in the private collection of William S. Paley since 1946. #SothebysModern
- Picasso's 1919 Synthetic Cubist painting 'Guitare sur une table' fetched $37.1 million at Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction on November 14, 2022, surpassing its $20-30 million estimate in its auction debut after 76 years in William S. Paley's collection.
- The work, on long-term loan to the Museum of Modern Art for three decades, exemplifies Picasso's bold use of vivid colors and geometric fragmentation to depict everyday objects, bridging Analytic and Synthetic Cubism phases.
- This sale underscored the enduring market strength for Picasso's Cubist output, contributing to Sotheby's $473 million total for the evening and ranking among the top modern art transactions of 2022.
masterpiece
1922 Two Women running on the Beach
Picasso’s 1920s Riviera Influence: Summers of Light, Neoclassicism, and Emerging Surrealism
Pablo Picasso first seriously engaged with the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur) in the early 1920s, drawn by its Mediterranean light, beaches, and social scene. This contrasts with Matisse’s more settled, year-round Nice immersion starting in 1917. Picasso’s visits were largely seasonal escapes from Paris with his wife Olga Khokhlova (a Russian ballerina) and later their son Paulo, often overlapping with the glamorous expatriate crowd (e.g., Gerald and Sara Murphy, F. Scott Fitzgerald). Locations included Saint-Raphaël (1919), Juan-les-Pins (from 1920), Cap d’Antibes, and other spots like Cannes.
Key Contexts
The Riviera reinforced Picasso’s “return to order” (neoclassicism) while planting seeds for Surrealism. The southern light, ancient Mediterranean heritage (echoing his Spanish roots), and beach life inspired monumental figures, bathers, and landscapes.
Pablo Picasso first seriously engaged with the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur) in the early 1920s, drawn by its Mediterranean light, beaches, and social scene. This contrasts with Matisse’s more settled, year-round Nice immersion starting in 1917. Picasso’s visits were largely seasonal escapes from Paris with his wife Olga Khokhlova (a Russian ballerina) and later their son Paulo, often overlapping with the glamorous expatriate crowd (e.g., Gerald and Sara Murphy, F. Scott Fitzgerald). Locations included Saint-Raphaël (1919), Juan-les-Pins (from 1920), Cap d’Antibes, and other spots like Cannes.
Key Contexts
- Timeline: First notable stay in Juan-les-Pins in 1920; regular summer returns through the 1920s into the early 1930s. The light, sea, and relaxed pace provided renewal amid personal and artistic shifts.
- Social Milieu: Part of the Roaring Twenties Riviera scene—jazz, beaches, villas, and intellectual circles. This environment influenced his depictions of leisure, bodies, and mythology.
- Personal: Married life with Olga, fatherhood, and emerging tensions that fed into his work. The Riviera offered escape and inspiration before his relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walter deepened.
The Riviera reinforced Picasso’s “return to order” (neoclassicism) while planting seeds for Surrealism. The southern light, ancient Mediterranean heritage (echoing his Spanish roots), and beach life inspired monumental figures, bathers, and landscapes.
- Landscapes and Interiors: Works like Landscape of Juan-les-Pins (1920) capture the coastal town with simplified forms, vibrant yet structured composition, and a lingering Cubist fragmentation blended with clearer observation. He painted villas, pianos in hotel rooms, and local scenes.
- Figures and Bathers: Monumental neoclassical women—voluptuous, statuesque, often on beaches. Examples include Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race) (1922), with dynamic, sculptural bodies against the sea, evoking classical antiquity and joyful vitality.g
- Technique and Mood: Smoother modeling, clearer contours, and a sense of volume influenced by the bright light and classical ruins. Brushwork feels more solid than fragmented Cubism. Themes blend serenity, eroticism, and mythic energy (bathers as modern nymphs or centaurs).
- Shared: Both found renewal in the Mediterranean—light, patterns, interiors, and the female form. Riviera visits stimulated decorative harmony, color, and escape from wartime austerity/Paris intensity. They observed each other’s work (a gentle rivalry).
- Differences:
- Matisse (1919 onward): Settled in Nice hotels/apartments for luminous, harmonious interiors, Odalisques (sensual, patterned fantasies), and still lifes. Focus on decorative serenity, color as emotional balm, and studio-constructed exoticism. Calmer, more introspective/immersive.
- Picasso (1920s summers): Seasonal, dynamic engagement—neoclassical solidity, beach/mythic figures, and Cubist echoes in landscapes. More monumental, theatrical, and psychologically charged (even in “ordered” phase). Led toward Surrealist distortions later in the decade. Less about patterned harmony, more about sculptural bodies and narrative energy.
1923 La Lettre
2019 SOLD for $ 25M by Christie's
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, 2019, Christie's sold for $ 25M from a lower estimate of $ 20M La Lettre (la réponse), oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, lot 64A. 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, 2019, Christie's sold for $ 25M from a lower estimate of $ 20M La Lettre (la réponse), oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, lot 64A. 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.
1925 La Femme Sculpteur
2024 SOLD for $ 25M by Sotheby's
Both Cubism and neo-Classicism had reached their limits in the art of Picasso. Something new must be tried to integrate the surrealism.
A scene in the well-lit artist's studio rue La Boétie marks this breakthrough. It features a woman three times. The pink lady is seated in an artist's smock and doubled by a black shadow. The black arms are joining to touch a white bust posed on a high tripod. Pink and white look straight at the observer in a slightly different attitude while the black is in a sharp profile. The balcony behind is a symbol of Hausmannian Paris.
This oil on canvas 130 x 98 cm painted in 1925 was titled la Femme Sculpteur when it was exhibited by Paul Rosenberg in 1926. Zervos preferred La Statuaire which refers it as an allegory. Indeed the female figure may also be the model for the bust.
This work was very important for Picasso who included it in 1932 in the seminal retrospective at the Galerie Georges Petit, on the same wall as Femme nue, Feuilles et Buste starring Marie-Thérèse Walter with a full resemblance between woman and bust.
It was sold for $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2024, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A scene in the well-lit artist's studio rue La Boétie marks this breakthrough. It features a woman three times. The pink lady is seated in an artist's smock and doubled by a black shadow. The black arms are joining to touch a white bust posed on a high tripod. Pink and white look straight at the observer in a slightly different attitude while the black is in a sharp profile. The balcony behind is a symbol of Hausmannian Paris.
This oil on canvas 130 x 98 cm painted in 1925 was titled la Femme Sculpteur when it was exhibited by Paul Rosenberg in 1926. Zervos preferred La Statuaire which refers it as an allegory. Indeed the female figure may also be the model for the bust.
This work was very important for Picasso who included it in 1932 in the seminal retrospective at the Galerie Georges Petit, on the same wall as Femme nue, Feuilles et Buste starring Marie-Thérèse Walter with a full resemblance between woman and bust.
It was sold for $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2024, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
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.
Painted on January 18, 1932, Nature morte à la fenêtre again belongs to the intermediate phase. It features the white oversized bust in full profile with a well defined hair beside a tabletop with leaves of philodendron in a vase and a plate of fruit. The philodendron is a symbol of vitality. The window behind is certainly that of the sculpture studio.
This oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm was one of the 18 works of 1932 exhibited at Georges Petit. It was sold for $ 42M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 42A.
Picasso is now emboldened. On March 8, 1932 Marie-Thérèse is featured 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.
Painted on January 18, 1932, Nature morte à la fenêtre again belongs to the intermediate phase. It features the white oversized bust in full profile with a well defined hair beside a tabletop with leaves of philodendron in a vase and a plate of fruit. The philodendron is a symbol of vitality. The window behind is certainly that of the sculpture studio.
This oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm was one of the 18 works of 1932 exhibited at Georges Petit. It was sold for $ 42M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 42A.
Picasso is now emboldened. On March 8, 1932 Marie-Thérèse is featured 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.
