Picasso before 1907
See also : Painting Art on paper Picasso Flowers Music and dance Self portrait Self portrait II Nude Children
Chronology : 20th century 1900-1909 1903 1905
Chronology : 20th century 1900-1909 1903 1905
1901 The Outbreak of the Blue Period
2015 SOLD for $ 67M including premium
Pablo Picasso returned to Paris in May 1901, torn between the desire for debauchery and the anguish of death. He was not yet 20 years old. Thus begins his Blue Period, charged with an intense emotion that combines lust and misery.
He is gifted and already recognized. His first exhibition at Vollard's begins on 25 June. He lives at 130 Boulevard de Clichy with Pedro "Pere" Mañach who is his broker and introduces his artworks to Berthe Weill.
On November 5 in New York, Sotheby's sells La gommeuse, oil on canvas 81 x 54 cm, lot 26.
The woman is visible down to her lower hips. She is nude by her job and not for pleasure even though her disillusioned gaze may also be attributed to absinth. Her attitude with raised shoulders and hanging breasts is miserable though she is not slender.
The title is an additional mockery. In the previous century, a gommeur was a type of ridiculous character trying to make his living by performing in the cafés-concerts. The word was later applied to women.
Art is more important. Behind Pablo's gommeuse, we see the lower part of a painting on the wall showing the legs of a ballerina along with a flower throwing. The artist is attracted and repelled by the cabaret world that ultimately is not his. The gommeuse does not watch the painting.
Pablo had here an intention for caricature which is expressed with more fancy on the recently uncovered back side of that painting. The nude body of a ballerina is surmounted by the head of Mañach according to the principle of these portraits-charges which were so popular at that time in the Parisian society.
This back also has an inscription to his friend on the occasion of his feast. If this date is interpreted as St. Peter's day, this dedication allows to date the back on 29 June 1901. The front side should logically be earlier than the sketched reverse, making this gommeuse one of the triggering prototypes of the blue period.
The importance of this painting in the history of Picasso's creativity is undeniable. The estimate is not published by Sotheby's but a price around $ 60M would not be surprising.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
He is gifted and already recognized. His first exhibition at Vollard's begins on 25 June. He lives at 130 Boulevard de Clichy with Pedro "Pere" Mañach who is his broker and introduces his artworks to Berthe Weill.
On November 5 in New York, Sotheby's sells La gommeuse, oil on canvas 81 x 54 cm, lot 26.
The woman is visible down to her lower hips. She is nude by her job and not for pleasure even though her disillusioned gaze may also be attributed to absinth. Her attitude with raised shoulders and hanging breasts is miserable though she is not slender.
The title is an additional mockery. In the previous century, a gommeur was a type of ridiculous character trying to make his living by performing in the cafés-concerts. The word was later applied to women.
Art is more important. Behind Pablo's gommeuse, we see the lower part of a painting on the wall showing the legs of a ballerina along with a flower throwing. The artist is attracted and repelled by the cabaret world that ultimately is not his. The gommeuse does not watch the painting.
Pablo had here an intention for caricature which is expressed with more fancy on the recently uncovered back side of that painting. The nude body of a ballerina is surmounted by the head of Mañach according to the principle of these portraits-charges which were so popular at that time in the Parisian society.
This back also has an inscription to his friend on the occasion of his feast. If this date is interpreted as St. Peter's day, this dedication allows to date the back on 29 June 1901. The front side should logically be earlier than the sketched reverse, making this gommeuse one of the triggering prototypes of the blue period.
The importance of this painting in the history of Picasso's creativity is undeniable. The estimate is not published by Sotheby's but a price around $ 60M would not be surprising.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1901 Femme aux bras croisés by Picasso
2000 SOLD for $ 55M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
From 1900, Picasso lived alternately in Barcelona and Paris. He settled permanently in Paris in April 1904. We may believe that his art influenced his melancholy, and not the reverse, to be correlated with the fact that no event in his sentimental life was identified to explain the triggering of the Période bleue.
The terminus post quem of the blue period is the exhibition at the Vollard gallery, which begins on June 24, 1901. Picasso appears as a brilliant colorist, with a wide variety of themes around worldly life and a youthful spontaneity. The terminus ante quem of the change in mood is a visit by Sabartes in his workshop at the end of the fall of the same year : the bright colors are gone, all the paintings are predominantly blue.
The themes also changed, with three variants of miserabilism : acrobats, alcohol in cafes, the women of Saint-Lazare. Sabartes confirmed that Picasso deliberately wanted to transform his art for integrating humanist characteristics such as sadness and pain.
Saint-Lazare is the prison-hospital where prostituted women live a hopeless decline. Picasso found cheap models there, and it was indeed at this point that his ideas went dismal. One morning, on the road once again for Saint-Lazare, he conceived L'Enterrement de Casagemas, the oil on canvas 150 x 90 cm which is often considered as the earliest example of the blue period.
On November 8, 2000, Christie's sold Femme aux bras croisés for $ 55M including premium, lot 43. This oil on canvas 81 x 58 cm is undoubtedly the portrait of a prisoner at Saint-Lazare. The starving woman expects nothing and looks at nothing. The position of the arms is protective, but she has nothing to protect. Picasso will later consider women as suffering machines.
It is difficult to accurately date some works from the blue period : the artist often reused his canvases, either for new compositions or for major alterations, which was the case for the Femme aux bras croisés. Considering Picasso's visits to Saint-Lazare in 1901 and this very allegorical interpretation of misery, this tragic painting was probably begun in Paris in the early phase of the blue period.
The terminus post quem of the blue period is the exhibition at the Vollard gallery, which begins on June 24, 1901. Picasso appears as a brilliant colorist, with a wide variety of themes around worldly life and a youthful spontaneity. The terminus ante quem of the change in mood is a visit by Sabartes in his workshop at the end of the fall of the same year : the bright colors are gone, all the paintings are predominantly blue.
The themes also changed, with three variants of miserabilism : acrobats, alcohol in cafes, the women of Saint-Lazare. Sabartes confirmed that Picasso deliberately wanted to transform his art for integrating humanist characteristics such as sadness and pain.
Saint-Lazare is the prison-hospital where prostituted women live a hopeless decline. Picasso found cheap models there, and it was indeed at this point that his ideas went dismal. One morning, on the road once again for Saint-Lazare, he conceived L'Enterrement de Casagemas, the oil on canvas 150 x 90 cm which is often considered as the earliest example of the blue period.
On November 8, 2000, Christie's sold Femme aux bras croisés for $ 55M including premium, lot 43. This oil on canvas 81 x 58 cm is undoubtedly the portrait of a prisoner at Saint-Lazare. The starving woman expects nothing and looks at nothing. The position of the arms is protective, but she has nothing to protect. Picasso will later consider women as suffering machines.
It is difficult to accurately date some works from the blue period : the artist often reused his canvases, either for new compositions or for major alterations, which was the case for the Femme aux bras croisés. Considering Picasso's visits to Saint-Lazare in 1901 and this very allegorical interpretation of misery, this tragic painting was probably begun in Paris in the early phase of the blue period.
1901 Yo Picasso
1989 SOLD for $ 48 M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Pablo Ruiz Picasso is attracted to the bohemian life. He goes to the 4 Gats cabaret in Barcelona and shares a workshop with Carlos Casagemas from January to September 1900. That name of 4 Gats is a reference to the Chat Noir in Montmartre. The two friends explore Paris in October 1900. It is indeed the ideal city for a career as a painter.
Carlos is the first to return to Paris, in January 1901. He commits suicide on February 17.
A highly creative period begins for Pablo. In May, the success of an exhibition of his pastels in Barcelona stirs his ambition. He returns to Paris at the end of May.
The skills of the young man is already evident. He will have a solo exhibition at the Galerie Vollard from June 24. He wants to show his know-how in its whole extent and frantically prepares paintings on various themes: scenes of cabaret and of horse racing, landscapes, flowers, naked women.
He is ready. His father's name, Ruiz, is too common for his exuberant ambition. He removes it from his signature to become Picasso.
The exhibition at Vollard's is dominated by a half-length self-portrait in front of his easel, unequivocally marking the artist's desire to be known and recognized. The attitude is proud, the gaze is intense and the colors are vivid. He will later write a title on this painting, Yo Picasso, confirming his own insolence. He may be forgiven : he was not yet 20 years old.
No, decidedly, four months after the death of Casagemas, there was no precursor of the blue period. Picasso's deep depression began around the middle of 1901. Picasso would later attribute it to the mourning of his friend, which nevertheless considerably disturbed him, without ever revealing the real cause of its outbreak. A rejected love?
Yo Picasso, oil on canvas 74 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 48M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 1989.
Carlos is the first to return to Paris, in January 1901. He commits suicide on February 17.
A highly creative period begins for Pablo. In May, the success of an exhibition of his pastels in Barcelona stirs his ambition. He returns to Paris at the end of May.
The skills of the young man is already evident. He will have a solo exhibition at the Galerie Vollard from June 24. He wants to show his know-how in its whole extent and frantically prepares paintings on various themes: scenes of cabaret and of horse racing, landscapes, flowers, naked women.
He is ready. His father's name, Ruiz, is too common for his exuberant ambition. He removes it from his signature to become Picasso.
The exhibition at Vollard's is dominated by a half-length self-portrait in front of his easel, unequivocally marking the artist's desire to be known and recognized. The attitude is proud, the gaze is intense and the colors are vivid. He will later write a title on this painting, Yo Picasso, confirming his own insolence. He may be forgiven : he was not yet 20 years old.
No, decidedly, four months after the death of Casagemas, there was no precursor of the blue period. Picasso's deep depression began around the middle of 1901. Picasso would later attribute it to the mourning of his friend, which nevertheless considerably disturbed him, without ever revealing the real cause of its outbreak. A rejected love?
Yo Picasso, oil on canvas 74 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 48M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 1989.
1901 Maternité by Picasso
1988 SOLD for $ 24.7M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2021
Picasso said: "It was while thinking that Casagemas was dead that I began to paint in blue". The chronology of the facts complicates the expertise. The euphoria of his solo exhibition by Vollard, in June 1901, just before Picasso's great depression, had come four months after Casagemas' death. This statement is however confirmed by an imaginary portrait of Casagemas on his deathbed, a much painful vision that Picasso kept in secret from 1901 to 1965.
The two fellows had wanted to explore the pleasures of Parisian life. Casagemas had committed suicide after attempting to assassinate a Moulin Rouge girl.
This mixture of love and death created with some delay a mystical questioning. Picasso is traumatized by the degradation of women in the prison-hospital of Saint-Lazare, dedicated for a hundred years to keeping sick prostitutes away from the brothels.
In this impulse that anticipates the Minotauromachie by more than thirty years, the artist no longer understands the meaning of life. The woman is not only an object of pleasure, she is also the mother, entrusted for perpetuating the human species. In the fall of 1901, just before returning to Barcelona, he painted a series of Maternities which indirectly reinterpreted the theme of the Virgin and Child.
An opus in this series is arguably the most poignant image therein. The mother wears a bure robe with a large hood. She affectionately holds the child standing in pajamas in front of her and places a kiss on his forehead. The room is empty except for a sewing basket, symbol of the humble occupations of the mother. There is no doubt that she is a fallen woman, locked up in Saint-Lazare, to whom her son brings the memory and the hope of real life. The hands of the young boy are joined as in a Christian prayer.
This 92 x 60 cm oil painting was sold for $ 24.7M including premium by Christie's on November 14, 1988. The image was shared in 2006 by Artnet.
The above interpretations are confirmed by a masterpiece from the blue period, painted in Barcelona in 1903, significantly titled La Vie, which confronts a naked couple and a maternity and where the man of the carnal couple is a posthumous portrait of Casagemas.
The two fellows had wanted to explore the pleasures of Parisian life. Casagemas had committed suicide after attempting to assassinate a Moulin Rouge girl.
This mixture of love and death created with some delay a mystical questioning. Picasso is traumatized by the degradation of women in the prison-hospital of Saint-Lazare, dedicated for a hundred years to keeping sick prostitutes away from the brothels.
In this impulse that anticipates the Minotauromachie by more than thirty years, the artist no longer understands the meaning of life. The woman is not only an object of pleasure, she is also the mother, entrusted for perpetuating the human species. In the fall of 1901, just before returning to Barcelona, he painted a series of Maternities which indirectly reinterpreted the theme of the Virgin and Child.
An opus in this series is arguably the most poignant image therein. The mother wears a bure robe with a large hood. She affectionately holds the child standing in pajamas in front of her and places a kiss on his forehead. The room is empty except for a sewing basket, symbol of the humble occupations of the mother. There is no doubt that she is a fallen woman, locked up in Saint-Lazare, to whom her son brings the memory and the hope of real life. The hands of the young boy are joined as in a Christian prayer.
This 92 x 60 cm oil painting was sold for $ 24.7M including premium by Christie's on November 14, 1988. The image was shared in 2006 by Artnet.
The above interpretations are confirmed by a masterpiece from the blue period, painted in Barcelona in 1903, significantly titled La Vie, which confronts a naked couple and a maternity and where the man of the carnal couple is a posthumous portrait of Casagemas.
1903 In the Blue of Absinthe
2010 SOLD 34.8 M£ including premium
Picasso's blue period, which lasted three years, is fascinating. Barely more than twenty years old, the artist expresses in his paintings a sort of autobiography of life's difficulties, and of the pursuit of pleasure despite misery.
Les Noces de Pierrette (1905), sold 300 MF on November 30, 1989 in duplex between Paris and Tokyo by Binoche and Godeau, is a scene group charged with intense emotion.
The portraits of friends are extraordinary. The Absinthe drinker of the Andrew Lloyd Webber collection, painted in 1903, 70 x 55 cm, in one of them. There is a wonderful contrast between the cynical face twisted like a Van Gogh and the feverish activity of the hands that prepare the addicting drink. At that time, the dangers of absinthe were not yet known (or not yet accepted by consumers ...).
Lloyd Webber had intended to sell it on November 8, 2006 at Christie's in New York. The lot had been withdrawn from sale after a property dispute dating back to Nazi spoliation. The art market awaited with impatience the come back of this work.
It is now done to the satisfaction of all parties. Christie's will sell it in London on June 23. Estimated $ 40 million in 2006, it is now expecting £ 30 million. The sale is to benefit the charity foundation of the composer.
All the press will talk about it. For not creating jealousy (!!!), here is a link to its photo in 2006 in the Sydney Morning Herald.
POST SALE COMMENT
This remarkable work from the beginning of Picasso's maturity has been sold £ 34.8 million including premium.
Les Noces de Pierrette (1905), sold 300 MF on November 30, 1989 in duplex between Paris and Tokyo by Binoche and Godeau, is a scene group charged with intense emotion.
The portraits of friends are extraordinary. The Absinthe drinker of the Andrew Lloyd Webber collection, painted in 1903, 70 x 55 cm, in one of them. There is a wonderful contrast between the cynical face twisted like a Van Gogh and the feverish activity of the hands that prepare the addicting drink. At that time, the dangers of absinthe were not yet known (or not yet accepted by consumers ...).
Lloyd Webber had intended to sell it on November 8, 2006 at Christie's in New York. The lot had been withdrawn from sale after a property dispute dating back to Nazi spoliation. The art market awaited with impatience the come back of this work.
It is now done to the satisfaction of all parties. Christie's will sell it in London on June 23. Estimated $ 40 million in 2006, it is now expecting £ 30 million. The sale is to benefit the charity foundation of the composer.
All the press will talk about it. For not creating jealousy (!!!), here is a link to its photo in 2006 in the Sydney Morning Herald.
POST SALE COMMENT
This remarkable work from the beginning of Picasso's maturity has been sold £ 34.8 million including premium.
1905 Innocent Children of the Période Rose
2018 SOLD for $ 115M including premium
Pablo Picasso is back in Paris in April 1904. Barcelona had not dissipated his morbid obsessions and he needs a restart. He installs his workshop at the Bateau-Lavoir and finally manages to create a couple, with Fernande. Gradually his painting loses its blue predominant to include warm colors like pink or orange. It is his Période Rose.
Poverty had dominated his Période Bleue. It is now replaced by the optimistic and promising theme of children ready to enter adulthood. The Garçon à la pipe, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm painted in 1905, was sold for $ 104M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004.
Pablo mixes the innocence of the nude with the acquisition of a first job. Although the formats are very different, the Fillette à la corbeille fleurie, 155 x 66 cm painted in 1905, and the Garçon menant un cheval, 220 x 131 cm finished in 1906, appear as pendants.
The girl is standing in profile. The body is healthy, straight. The expression is rebellious without any excuse for immodesty, in a striking psychological effect : this young person has obviously been disturbed in her occupation.
During the very short Période Rose the line is delimited and effective. The figurative realism of this Fillette makes forget that nudity may not have been necessary. This artwork successively delighted Gertrude Stein and David Rockefeller. It will be sold on May 8 by Christie's in New York, lot 15.
Poverty had dominated his Période Bleue. It is now replaced by the optimistic and promising theme of children ready to enter adulthood. The Garçon à la pipe, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm painted in 1905, was sold for $ 104M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004.
Pablo mixes the innocence of the nude with the acquisition of a first job. Although the formats are very different, the Fillette à la corbeille fleurie, 155 x 66 cm painted in 1905, and the Garçon menant un cheval, 220 x 131 cm finished in 1906, appear as pendants.
The girl is standing in profile. The body is healthy, straight. The expression is rebellious without any excuse for immodesty, in a striking psychological effect : this young person has obviously been disturbed in her occupation.
During the very short Période Rose the line is delimited and effective. The figurative realism of this Fillette makes forget that nudity may not have been necessary. This artwork successively delighted Gertrude Stein and David Rockefeller. It will be sold on May 8 by Christie's in New York, lot 15.
1905 Garçon à la Pipe by Picasso
2004 SOLD for $ 104M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
The miserability of the Période Bleue of Picasso, based on the difficult life of circus acrobats, was socially a dead end. In 1905 he reacts with new themes where the characters imagine their future without losing a stuck or surly attitude. These works include the Femme à l'éventail and two children, the Fillette à la corbeille de fleurs and the Garçon à la pipe.
La Fillette, oil on canvas 155 x 66 cm, was sold for $ 115M including premium by Christie's on May 8, 2018. Le Garçon, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 104M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004, lot 7.
The Garçon à la Pipe is a subtle blend of realism and dreamlike and, as such, will remain the archetype of the Période Rose. Dressed in blue overalls, the gloomy teenager is drawn in a fine line. The pipe marks his expectation of maturity. Picasso did not reveal his identity, because it is an allegory. He is however P'tit Louis, a boy from Montmartre who spent long hours watching the artists working at the Bateau-Lavoir.
The inspiration suddenly came to Picasso after a month of interruption of the work. In the blur of a dream, the character is positioned in front of a wallpaper with patterns of roses and wears a garland of flowers in his hair. A simultaneous use of a sharp image in a floral blur had also been attempted by Odilon Redon.
The little worker thus becomes a supernatural being. A relevant comparison was made with Verlaine's poem titled Crimen Amoris. In the dream of a delicious Orient where the seven sins supersede the five senses amidst the roses, the most handsome of the evil angels, indifferent to temptations and caresses, is a boy of sixteen who wears a crown of flowers. His ambition, annihilated at the end of the poem, was to be "the one who will create God".
La Fillette, oil on canvas 155 x 66 cm, was sold for $ 115M including premium by Christie's on May 8, 2018. Le Garçon, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 104M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004, lot 7.
The Garçon à la Pipe is a subtle blend of realism and dreamlike and, as such, will remain the archetype of the Période Rose. Dressed in blue overalls, the gloomy teenager is drawn in a fine line. The pipe marks his expectation of maturity. Picasso did not reveal his identity, because it is an allegory. He is however P'tit Louis, a boy from Montmartre who spent long hours watching the artists working at the Bateau-Lavoir.
The inspiration suddenly came to Picasso after a month of interruption of the work. In the blur of a dream, the character is positioned in front of a wallpaper with patterns of roses and wears a garland of flowers in his hair. A simultaneous use of a sharp image in a floral blur had also been attempted by Odilon Redon.
The little worker thus becomes a supernatural being. A relevant comparison was made with Verlaine's poem titled Crimen Amoris. In the dream of a delicious Orient where the seven sins supersede the five senses amidst the roses, the most handsome of the evil angels, indifferent to temptations and caresses, is a boy of sixteen who wears a crown of flowers. His ambition, annihilated at the end of the poem, was to be "the one who will create God".
1905 Les Noces de Pierrette by Picasso
1989 SOLD for FF 315M including premium by Binoche et Godeau
narrated in 2020
The Période Bleue begins in 1901 with the suicide of Casagemas. Picasso remains melancholic. His main theme is poverty, painted with cool colors. The associated theme is the contradictory life of circus acrobats, who must amuse the public while their real life is miserable.
Les Noces de Pierrette, oil on canvas 115 x 195 cm, appears at first glance as a work of the blue period. It was however painted in 1905, a year rather characterized by the entry of the artist into his pink period with the return of a positive meaning of life. In this transitional artwork, Picasso criticizes the power of money.
This painting depicts six circus characters, three men and three women. During the blue period, the compositions rarely exceeded the couple, sometimes with a child or a partner.
The tension is brought by the whiteness of the faces, the sad expressions, the dark colors of the clothes and of the background. The artist is staging a drama. Pierrette marries the boss of the circus but her amorous look is for Arlequin, who sends her a kiss with one hand while furiously closing the other fist behind his back.
Les Noces de Pierrette was sold on November 30, 1989 by Binoche et Godeau for FF 315M including premium, worth US $ 52M. The Minister of Culture had granted this work the authorization to leave France in exchange for the gift to the French State by its owner of La Célestine, another painting of the blue period considered to be more important.
Unlike La Célestine, Pierrette is not a character from literature. She would rather be a female equivalent of Pierrot, a Colombine being losing her Arlequin, imagined by Picasso.
Les Noces de Pierrette, oil on canvas 115 x 195 cm, appears at first glance as a work of the blue period. It was however painted in 1905, a year rather characterized by the entry of the artist into his pink period with the return of a positive meaning of life. In this transitional artwork, Picasso criticizes the power of money.
This painting depicts six circus characters, three men and three women. During the blue period, the compositions rarely exceeded the couple, sometimes with a child or a partner.
The tension is brought by the whiteness of the faces, the sad expressions, the dark colors of the clothes and of the background. The artist is staging a drama. Pierrette marries the boss of the circus but her amorous look is for Arlequin, who sends her a kiss with one hand while furiously closing the other fist behind his back.
Les Noces de Pierrette was sold on November 30, 1989 by Binoche et Godeau for FF 315M including premium, worth US $ 52M. The Minister of Culture had granted this work the authorization to leave France in exchange for the gift to the French State by its owner of La Célestine, another painting of the blue period considered to be more important.
Unlike La Célestine, Pierrette is not a character from literature. She would rather be a female equivalent of Pierrot, a Colombine being losing her Arlequin, imagined by Picasso.
1905 Au Lapin Agile by Picasso
1989 SOLD for $ 41M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Cabarets had a preponderant place in Picasso's youth. It is indeed at the 4 Gats in Barcelona that he feels the desire to have a bohemian life in Montmartre.
Le Lapin Agile is perfectly located in the heart of Montmartre, rue des Saules. Before 1900 its reputation had been sordid. Its name is a pun on the sign created by the cartoonist André Gill showing a happy rabbit jumping out of a pan.
Picasso arrives in Paris at the time when a new steward nicknamed Frédé organizes evenings in this cabaret during which poets, comedians and artists from Montmartre play music, sing, recite poems, chat with conviviality. Frédé plays guitar and cello.
Au Lapin Agile is an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted by Picasso in 1905 on a commission from Frédé. Pablo prepares it in the graphic style of Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, without any style link either with the blue period or with the pink period. It was sold for $ 41M including premium by Sotheby's on November 27, 1989.
The couple in the foreground, seated in front of glasses of wine, is made up of Picasso dressed as a Harlequin and of Germaine, the woman who had rejected Casagemas but was probably Pablo's mistress throughout the blue period. Behind them, Frédé plays the guitar.
Picasso's painting hung on the wall of the cabaret until 1912. It was therefore a silent witness of the most famous hoax in the history of art.
In 1910 on the cabaret terrace, the writer Roland Dorgelès accompanied by an accomplice attaches brushes to the tail of Lolo, Frédé's donkey. In the presence of a bailiff, they dip the brushes in pots of orange, yellow, red and blue paint and offer the animal a carrot. The frantic movement of the tail creates on a 54 x 81 cm canvas the masterpiece titled Et le Soleil s'endormit sur l'Adriatique, signed J.R. Boronali, an anagram of Buridan's famous donkey, Aliboron.
They exhibit this Sunset at the Salon des Indépendants as a manifesto of the Excessivisme. The fruitful debates that the hoax has aroused about the meaning of art are thus a direct consequence of the artists' meetings at the Lapin Agile. Picasso's painting is a rare rendering of this environment.
Le Lapin Agile is perfectly located in the heart of Montmartre, rue des Saules. Before 1900 its reputation had been sordid. Its name is a pun on the sign created by the cartoonist André Gill showing a happy rabbit jumping out of a pan.
Picasso arrives in Paris at the time when a new steward nicknamed Frédé organizes evenings in this cabaret during which poets, comedians and artists from Montmartre play music, sing, recite poems, chat with conviviality. Frédé plays guitar and cello.
Au Lapin Agile is an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted by Picasso in 1905 on a commission from Frédé. Pablo prepares it in the graphic style of Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, without any style link either with the blue period or with the pink period. It was sold for $ 41M including premium by Sotheby's on November 27, 1989.
The couple in the foreground, seated in front of glasses of wine, is made up of Picasso dressed as a Harlequin and of Germaine, the woman who had rejected Casagemas but was probably Pablo's mistress throughout the blue period. Behind them, Frédé plays the guitar.
Picasso's painting hung on the wall of the cabaret until 1912. It was therefore a silent witness of the most famous hoax in the history of art.
In 1910 on the cabaret terrace, the writer Roland Dorgelès accompanied by an accomplice attaches brushes to the tail of Lolo, Frédé's donkey. In the presence of a bailiff, they dip the brushes in pots of orange, yellow, red and blue paint and offer the animal a carrot. The frantic movement of the tail creates on a 54 x 81 cm canvas the masterpiece titled Et le Soleil s'endormit sur l'Adriatique, signed J.R. Boronali, an anagram of Buridan's famous donkey, Aliboron.
They exhibit this Sunset at the Salon des Indépendants as a manifesto of the Excessivisme. The fruitful debates that the hoax has aroused about the meaning of art are thus a direct consequence of the artists' meetings at the Lapin Agile. Picasso's painting is a rare rendering of this environment.
1905 Acrobate et Jeune Arlequin by Picasso
1988 SOLD for £ 21M (worth $ 38.5M at that time) including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2021
During his blue period, Picasso hesitates between Barcelona and Paris. His fourth trip to Paris, in April 1904, is decisive.
The 1901 beginning of his Parisian glory is already far away. A friend gives him a place at the Bateau-Lavoir, a dwelling for artists on the slopes of the Butte Montmartre. There he finds emigrant artists, Italian and Spanish, who cannot escape poverty and earn a few cents by selling their works to second-hand dealers.
He has the will to get out of it. This miserable workshop becomes his pied-à-terre from where he makes new friends, including Max Jacob. He wants to have fun and goes to nightclubs and the Medrano circus. His new muse, Fernande, replaces Germaine, the femme fatale who had repelled Casagemas and whose direct influence on Pablo has not been disclosed.
Tragic art is not a lasting solution for this return of ambitions. Picasso observes that clowns, entrusted for entertaining the public, have the same hungry lives as the unknown artists. Acrobats and saltimbanques take the place of the prostitutes from the blue period in Pablo's world. By an optimism which is undoubtedly forced, he adds the children who still believe in the future pleasures of their life.
In February 1905, Picasso prepares an exhibition of several works on the theme of the circus, which followed the edition of the Repas Frugal. A watercolor features an adult acrobat and a teenage harlequin, both costumed to take the stage. They are serious and bony. The warm colors announce the entry into the pink period.
This artwork was sold by Christie's on November 28, 1988 for £ 21M, worth at the time $ 38.5M, including premium, from a lower estimate of £ 10M. It is illustrated in the post sale article by Judd Tully, the Washington Post art critic.
The 1901 beginning of his Parisian glory is already far away. A friend gives him a place at the Bateau-Lavoir, a dwelling for artists on the slopes of the Butte Montmartre. There he finds emigrant artists, Italian and Spanish, who cannot escape poverty and earn a few cents by selling their works to second-hand dealers.
He has the will to get out of it. This miserable workshop becomes his pied-à-terre from where he makes new friends, including Max Jacob. He wants to have fun and goes to nightclubs and the Medrano circus. His new muse, Fernande, replaces Germaine, the femme fatale who had repelled Casagemas and whose direct influence on Pablo has not been disclosed.
Tragic art is not a lasting solution for this return of ambitions. Picasso observes that clowns, entrusted for entertaining the public, have the same hungry lives as the unknown artists. Acrobats and saltimbanques take the place of the prostitutes from the blue period in Pablo's world. By an optimism which is undoubtedly forced, he adds the children who still believe in the future pleasures of their life.
In February 1905, Picasso prepares an exhibition of several works on the theme of the circus, which followed the edition of the Repas Frugal. A watercolor features an adult acrobat and a teenage harlequin, both costumed to take the stage. They are serious and bony. The warm colors announce the entry into the pink period.
This artwork was sold by Christie's on November 28, 1988 for £ 21M, worth at the time $ 38.5M, including premium, from a lower estimate of £ 10M. It is illustrated in the post sale article by Judd Tully, the Washington Post art critic.
