Picasso before 1907
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See also : Art on paper Picasso Flowers Music and dance Self portrait Self portrait II Nude Paris
Chronology : 1900-1909 1901 1903 1905
See also : Art on paper Picasso Flowers Music and dance Self portrait Self portrait II Nude Paris
Chronology : 1900-1909 1901 1903 1905
Intro
After the Expo 1900 where one of his works had been displayed,Pablo Picasso makes his first trip to Paris. He is seduced by the atmosphere of the Belle Epoque and enticed about the possibilities of a brilliant artistic career. He comes back to Paris in May 1901. Pedro Mañach introduces him to influential dealers and Ambroise Vollard prepares an exhibition that will open on 25 June.
Time is running out but Pablo cannot miss such an opportunity to launch his career. He enters into a creative frenzy, estimated by some observers at three oils per day made in broad brush strokes for a faster covering of the surface. He has so little available time that he does not deal with details, especially in the face lines.
Pablo who is not yet 20 did not offer up to that point an original style to match his graphic skill. Vollard had worked with Bonnard. Picasso is opting for a wide variety of themes from intimate to worldly with a choice of colors reminiscent of the post-impressionnisme and thick outlines that anticipate the expressionism.
In this ephemeral style that remains primitive compared to the blue period, an oil on cardboard 47 x 62 cm painted in 1901 showing Belle Epoque women on top of an omnibus that crosses a bridge over the Seine was sold for £ 4.9M by Christie's on February 9, 2011. This painting with a bold diagonal composition had been exhibited by Berthe Weill in 1902.
Returning to the artificial pleasures of Parisian life after the Vollard exhibition, he will remember Casagemas and enter into the psychological disaster of his blue period.
Pablo Picasso's Blue and Rose Periods: Overview and Artistic Legacy
Pablo Picasso's early career is marked by two distinct phases: the Blue Period (1901–1904) and the Rose Period (1904–1906), which reflect his emotional evolution from despair to optimism. These periods, often seen as transitional in his journey toward Cubism, showcase Picasso's mastery of color to convey mood, drawing from personal experiences like loss, poverty, and newfound companionship. While the Blue Period captures melancholy through somber tones, the Rose Period introduces warmer hues and lighter themes, influencing modern art by demonstrating how emotional states can drive stylistic innovation.
The Blue Period (1901–1904): Overview and Characteristics
The Blue Period emerged during a time of profound personal hardship for Picasso, triggered by the suicide of his close friend Carlos Casagemas in 1901 and his own struggles with poverty while shuttling between Barcelona and Paris. Characterized by monochromatic palettes of blue and blue-green shades, occasionally accented with warmer tones, the works evoke themes of isolation, despair, and human suffering. Picasso focused on society's marginalized—beggars, the blind, prostitutes, and the impoverished—portraying them with elongated, gaunt figures and a sense of quiet resignation. This phase reflects his empathy for the downtrodden, influenced by his exposure to urban poverty and Symbolist art. Despite initial commercial struggles, these paintings gained popularity later for their emotional depth. Key works include The Old Guitarist (1903–1904), depicting a hunched, emaciated musician in a Barcelona street, symbolizing creative anguish and loneliness.
Another emblematic piece is La Vie (1903), a layered composition exploring life, death, and relationships, painted over an earlier work to emphasize themes of loss. Other notable examples are The Blindman's Meal (1903) and Portrait of Soler (1903), which highlight social realism through distorted forms and cool tones.
The Rose Period (1904–1906): Overview and Characteristics
Marking a shift toward hope, the Rose Period began as Picasso settled in Montmartre's Bateau-Lavoir studio in Paris, forming bonds with poets like Guillaume Apollinaire and finding love with model Fernande Olivier, who became his muse. The palette warmed to pinks, oranges, reds, and earth tones, evoking cheerfulness and vitality. Themes centered on circus life—harlequins, acrobats, clowns, and performers—symbolizing the bohemian artist's transient existence. This era introduced stylistic experimentation with primitivism, influenced by Iberian sculpture and African art, blending intuition over direct observation. Though brief, it bridged realism and abstraction, with fluid lines and elongated figures foreshadowing Cubism. Prominent works include Family of Saltimbanques (1905), a large canvas portraying itinerant performers in a desolate landscape, capturing themes of camaraderie and melancholy.
Boy with a Pipe (1905) features a young circus boy adorned with flowers, blending innocence with subtle introspection.
Additional highlights are Acrobat on a Ball (1905) and Woman in Shirt (1905), showcasing graceful poses and a return to classical beauty.
Blue Period : (1901–1904)
Blues, blue-greens, somber tones
Poverty, isolation, despair, human suffering
Friend's suicide, personal poverty
The Old Guitarist, La Vie
Rose Period : (1904–1906)
Pinks, oranges, reds, earth tones
Circus performers, harlequins, optimism
Relationship with Fernande Olivier, Montmartre life
Family of Saltimbanques, Boy with a Pipe
Artistic Legacy
The Blue and Rose Periods form the foundation of Picasso's legacy, illustrating his use of color as an emotional tool—blue for grief, rose for renewal—and influencing Expressionism and Symbolism. These phases humanized modern art by addressing social issues and personal turmoil, inspiring artists like Francis Bacon and contemporary figurative painters. Today, works from these periods command high auction prices and are housed in major museums, such as the Musée Picasso in Paris, underscoring Picasso's enduring impact on how art conveys the human condition.
Time is running out but Pablo cannot miss such an opportunity to launch his career. He enters into a creative frenzy, estimated by some observers at three oils per day made in broad brush strokes for a faster covering of the surface. He has so little available time that he does not deal with details, especially in the face lines.
Pablo who is not yet 20 did not offer up to that point an original style to match his graphic skill. Vollard had worked with Bonnard. Picasso is opting for a wide variety of themes from intimate to worldly with a choice of colors reminiscent of the post-impressionnisme and thick outlines that anticipate the expressionism.
In this ephemeral style that remains primitive compared to the blue period, an oil on cardboard 47 x 62 cm painted in 1901 showing Belle Epoque women on top of an omnibus that crosses a bridge over the Seine was sold for £ 4.9M by Christie's on February 9, 2011. This painting with a bold diagonal composition had been exhibited by Berthe Weill in 1902.
Returning to the artificial pleasures of Parisian life after the Vollard exhibition, he will remember Casagemas and enter into the psychological disaster of his blue period.
Pablo Picasso's Blue and Rose Periods: Overview and Artistic Legacy
Pablo Picasso's early career is marked by two distinct phases: the Blue Period (1901–1904) and the Rose Period (1904–1906), which reflect his emotional evolution from despair to optimism. These periods, often seen as transitional in his journey toward Cubism, showcase Picasso's mastery of color to convey mood, drawing from personal experiences like loss, poverty, and newfound companionship. While the Blue Period captures melancholy through somber tones, the Rose Period introduces warmer hues and lighter themes, influencing modern art by demonstrating how emotional states can drive stylistic innovation.
The Blue Period (1901–1904): Overview and Characteristics
The Blue Period emerged during a time of profound personal hardship for Picasso, triggered by the suicide of his close friend Carlos Casagemas in 1901 and his own struggles with poverty while shuttling between Barcelona and Paris. Characterized by monochromatic palettes of blue and blue-green shades, occasionally accented with warmer tones, the works evoke themes of isolation, despair, and human suffering. Picasso focused on society's marginalized—beggars, the blind, prostitutes, and the impoverished—portraying them with elongated, gaunt figures and a sense of quiet resignation. This phase reflects his empathy for the downtrodden, influenced by his exposure to urban poverty and Symbolist art. Despite initial commercial struggles, these paintings gained popularity later for their emotional depth. Key works include The Old Guitarist (1903–1904), depicting a hunched, emaciated musician in a Barcelona street, symbolizing creative anguish and loneliness.
Another emblematic piece is La Vie (1903), a layered composition exploring life, death, and relationships, painted over an earlier work to emphasize themes of loss. Other notable examples are The Blindman's Meal (1903) and Portrait of Soler (1903), which highlight social realism through distorted forms and cool tones.
The Rose Period (1904–1906): Overview and Characteristics
Marking a shift toward hope, the Rose Period began as Picasso settled in Montmartre's Bateau-Lavoir studio in Paris, forming bonds with poets like Guillaume Apollinaire and finding love with model Fernande Olivier, who became his muse. The palette warmed to pinks, oranges, reds, and earth tones, evoking cheerfulness and vitality. Themes centered on circus life—harlequins, acrobats, clowns, and performers—symbolizing the bohemian artist's transient existence. This era introduced stylistic experimentation with primitivism, influenced by Iberian sculpture and African art, blending intuition over direct observation. Though brief, it bridged realism and abstraction, with fluid lines and elongated figures foreshadowing Cubism. Prominent works include Family of Saltimbanques (1905), a large canvas portraying itinerant performers in a desolate landscape, capturing themes of camaraderie and melancholy.
Boy with a Pipe (1905) features a young circus boy adorned with flowers, blending innocence with subtle introspection.
Additional highlights are Acrobat on a Ball (1905) and Woman in Shirt (1905), showcasing graceful poses and a return to classical beauty.
Blue Period : (1901–1904)
Blues, blue-greens, somber tones
Poverty, isolation, despair, human suffering
Friend's suicide, personal poverty
The Old Guitarist, La Vie
Rose Period : (1904–1906)
Pinks, oranges, reds, earth tones
Circus performers, harlequins, optimism
Relationship with Fernande Olivier, Montmartre life
Family of Saltimbanques, Boy with a Pipe
Artistic Legacy
The Blue and Rose Periods form the foundation of Picasso's legacy, illustrating his use of color as an emotional tool—blue for grief, rose for renewal—and influencing Expressionism and Symbolism. These phases humanized modern art by addressing social issues and personal turmoil, inspiring artists like Francis Bacon and contemporary figurative painters. Today, works from these periods command high auction prices and are housed in major museums, such as the Musée Picasso in Paris, underscoring Picasso's enduring impact on how art conveys the human condition.
Psychiatric analysis of the art and life of Pablo Picasso
Psychiatric Perspectives on Pablo Picasso's Life and Art
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, lived a life marked by intense creativity, tumultuous relationships, and emotional volatility. While posthumous psychiatric diagnoses are inherently speculative and ethically debated—lacking direct clinical evaluation—biographers, art historians, and psychologists have analyzed his behavior, relationships, and artistic evolution through modern mental health lenses. Common themes include depression, possible bipolar tendencies, narcissistic traits, and the channeling of inner turmoil into revolutionary art forms like Cubism.
Mental Health Challenges in Picasso's Life
Picasso experienced significant personal losses early on, including the death of his younger sister from diphtheria at age 13, which profoundly affected him. A pivotal event was the 1901 suicide of his close friend Carlos Casagemas, triggering a deep depressive episode. This coincided with his Blue Period (1901–1904), characterized by monochromatic blues and subjects depicting poverty, isolation, and despair—prostitutes, beggars, and melancholic figures.
Many sources link this period directly to clinical depression, with Picasso himself later recalling starting to paint in blue upon learning of Casagemas's death. His mood reportedly shifted to the warmer Rose Period (1904–1906), suggesting cyclical emotional states some interpret as bipolar disorder: depressive lows followed by more energetic, colorful phases.
Picasso's relationships were notoriously intense and destructive. He had multiple overlapping partners, often younger women who served as muses (e.g., Fernande Olivier, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot). Accounts describe him as possessive, manipulative, and emotionally abusive—traits associated with narcissistic personality disorder (grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy) or borderline features (fear of abandonment, impulsivity). Several partners suffered mental health crises; Dora Maar, for instance, required psychiatric treatment after their breakup. Picasso's own volatility—extreme productivity alternating with darker periods—fuels speculation about bipolar disorder or unresolved trauma influencing his interpersonal dynamics.
Psychoanalytic Interpretations of His Art
From a psychoanalytic viewpoint, Picasso's work often reflects unconscious drives. Carl Gustav Jung viewed his paintings as expressions of the collective unconscious—archetypal, mythical figures emerging from deeper psychic layers rather than conscious satire or realism. Cubism, co-developed with Georges Braque (1907–1914), fragmented forms and presented multiple perspectives simultaneously, seen by some as manifesting inner fragmentation or aggression.
The proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) features distorted, mask-like faces influenced by African art, interpreted as primal sexuality, aggression, and Oedipal themes (Freudian views link it to fears/desires around women, echoing his complex maternal bonds).
Later works like Guernica (1937), a visceral anti-war statement on the Spanish Civil War bombing, channel horror and chaos into fragmented, screaming forms—possibly sublimating personal rage or societal trauma.His evolving self-portraits—from realistic youth to increasingly distorted later years—have sparked unfounded comparisons to schizophrenia progression (e.g., akin to artist Louis Wain's cats), but experts dismiss this; Picasso's distortions were deliberate intellectual explorations of perception, not psychotic deterioration.
Creativity and the "Tortured Genius" Narrative
Picasso's output—tens of thousands of works—suggests art as a coping mechanism, transforming pain into innovation. His boundary-pushing (e.g., rejecting illusionism in Cubism) may stem from a unique psychological makeup allowing unconventional perception. However, this came at a cost: harmed relationships and the romanticization of suffering. Modern views caution against glorifying mental anguish as essential to genius; Picasso's brilliance likely coexisted with, rather than solely resulted from, his struggles.
In summary, while no definitive diagnosis exists, Picasso's life and art illustrate the complex interplay between emotional distress, personality traits, and creative expression—offering a lens into how inner worlds shape revolutionary output. His legacy endures not just in form, but in provoking ongoing reflection on the human psyche.
Psychiatric Perspectives on Pablo Picasso's Life and Art
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, lived a life marked by intense creativity, tumultuous relationships, and emotional volatility. While posthumous psychiatric diagnoses are inherently speculative and ethically debated—lacking direct clinical evaluation—biographers, art historians, and psychologists have analyzed his behavior, relationships, and artistic evolution through modern mental health lenses. Common themes include depression, possible bipolar tendencies, narcissistic traits, and the channeling of inner turmoil into revolutionary art forms like Cubism.
Mental Health Challenges in Picasso's Life
Picasso experienced significant personal losses early on, including the death of his younger sister from diphtheria at age 13, which profoundly affected him. A pivotal event was the 1901 suicide of his close friend Carlos Casagemas, triggering a deep depressive episode. This coincided with his Blue Period (1901–1904), characterized by monochromatic blues and subjects depicting poverty, isolation, and despair—prostitutes, beggars, and melancholic figures.
Many sources link this period directly to clinical depression, with Picasso himself later recalling starting to paint in blue upon learning of Casagemas's death. His mood reportedly shifted to the warmer Rose Period (1904–1906), suggesting cyclical emotional states some interpret as bipolar disorder: depressive lows followed by more energetic, colorful phases.
Picasso's relationships were notoriously intense and destructive. He had multiple overlapping partners, often younger women who served as muses (e.g., Fernande Olivier, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot). Accounts describe him as possessive, manipulative, and emotionally abusive—traits associated with narcissistic personality disorder (grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy) or borderline features (fear of abandonment, impulsivity). Several partners suffered mental health crises; Dora Maar, for instance, required psychiatric treatment after their breakup. Picasso's own volatility—extreme productivity alternating with darker periods—fuels speculation about bipolar disorder or unresolved trauma influencing his interpersonal dynamics.
Psychoanalytic Interpretations of His Art
From a psychoanalytic viewpoint, Picasso's work often reflects unconscious drives. Carl Gustav Jung viewed his paintings as expressions of the collective unconscious—archetypal, mythical figures emerging from deeper psychic layers rather than conscious satire or realism. Cubism, co-developed with Georges Braque (1907–1914), fragmented forms and presented multiple perspectives simultaneously, seen by some as manifesting inner fragmentation or aggression.
The proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) features distorted, mask-like faces influenced by African art, interpreted as primal sexuality, aggression, and Oedipal themes (Freudian views link it to fears/desires around women, echoing his complex maternal bonds).
Later works like Guernica (1937), a visceral anti-war statement on the Spanish Civil War bombing, channel horror and chaos into fragmented, screaming forms—possibly sublimating personal rage or societal trauma.His evolving self-portraits—from realistic youth to increasingly distorted later years—have sparked unfounded comparisons to schizophrenia progression (e.g., akin to artist Louis Wain's cats), but experts dismiss this; Picasso's distortions were deliberate intellectual explorations of perception, not psychotic deterioration.
Creativity and the "Tortured Genius" Narrative
Picasso's output—tens of thousands of works—suggests art as a coping mechanism, transforming pain into innovation. His boundary-pushing (e.g., rejecting illusionism in Cubism) may stem from a unique psychological makeup allowing unconventional perception. However, this came at a cost: harmed relationships and the romanticization of suffering. Modern views caution against glorifying mental anguish as essential to genius; Picasso's brilliance likely coexisted with, rather than solely resulted from, his struggles.
In summary, while no definitive diagnosis exists, Picasso's life and art illustrate the complex interplay between emotional distress, personality traits, and creative expression—offering a lens into how inner worlds shape revolutionary output. His legacy endures not just in form, but in provoking ongoing reflection on the human psyche.
1901 La Gommeuse
2015 SOLD for $ 67M by Sotheby's
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, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 67M La gommeuse, oil on canvas 81 x 54 cm, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
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.
Thought by Grok from an ArtHitParade post :
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, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 67M La gommeuse, oil on canvas 81 x 54 cm, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
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.
Thought by Grok from an ArtHitParade post :
- This 2015 X post by @ArtHitParade announces the Sotheby's sale of Pablo Picasso's "La Gommeuse," a 1901 Blue Period oil painting depicting a nude cabaret performer in melancholic green and ochre tones, for $67 million.
- The work, measuring 81x54 cm, captures themes of loneliness and Parisian nightlife, influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, and was a gift caricature on its reverse to Picasso's friend Pere Mañach, revealed only in 2000.
- Acquired by collector William I. Koch for $3 million in 1984, it set a Blue Period Picasso auction record at $67.5 million (with premium) in November 2015, underscoring the painting's rarity and market surge.
1901 Yo Picasso
1989 SOLD for $ 48 M by Sotheby's
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 by Sotheby's on May 9, 1989.
Grok thought :
Quote
Piero BENEDETTO @pieroBENEDETTO Jan 19, 2016
Self portrait Yo Picasso 1901 by Pablo Picasso #periodoBlu in #Sotheby $. 40,7 million #uomoinArte #artlovers
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 by Sotheby's on May 9, 1989.
Grok thought :
Quote
Piero BENEDETTO @pieroBENEDETTO Jan 19, 2016
Self portrait Yo Picasso 1901 by Pablo Picasso #periodoBlu in #Sotheby $. 40,7 million #uomoinArte #artlovers
- Picasso's "Yo, Picasso" self-portrait from 1901, painted during his Blue Period amid poverty and grief over a friend's suicide, depicts the 19-year-old artist in melancholic blues and greens, conveying raw vulnerability.
- The post inaccurately cites a $40.7 million Sotheby's sale price; the actual 1989 auction fetched a then-record $47.85 million, underscoring the painting's status as one of Picasso's earliest masterpieces.
- Shared by Italian entrepreneur @pieroBENEDETTO, an art enthusiast, the post engaged a multilingual community of admirers, highlighting the artwork's enduring appeal through tags like #periodoBlu and #artlovers.
1901 Femme aux bras croisés
2000 SOLD for $ 55M by Christie's
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, 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, 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.
Against the common belief and Picasso's statement, I guess that the trend to the Période Bleue started before the suicide of Casagemas. If yes, did Casagemas have a bad influence in his lifetime ?
Timeline and the Onset of Picasso's Blue Period
Carlos (or Carles) Casagemas committed suicide on February 17, 1901, in a Paris café after a failed romantic obsession with Laure "Germaine" Gargallo (whom he attempted to shoot before turning the gun on himself). Picasso, then in Spain (Madrid or Málaga), learned of the death shortly afterward—likely in late February or early March.
Picasso himself later stated: "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death." This aligns with the conventional art historical view. Reliable sources (e.g., Wikipedia, Musée Picasso Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and biographies by John Richardson and others) date the Blue Period as beginning in late 1901 (often specified as the latter part or autumn of 1901), with fully monochromatic blue works dominating from around mid-1901 onward.
Your guess that the Blue Period trend started before Casagemas's suicide appears incorrect based on chronological evidence and expert consensus. The suicide was the primary catalyst, compounding earlier traumas (e.g., his sister Conchita's death in 1895) but marking the decisive emotional shift.
Casagemas's Influence on Picasso During His Lifetime
Casagemas and Picasso met around 1899 in Barcelona's avant-garde scene (centered at Els Quatre Gats café). They became close friends—sharing studios, travels, models, and bohemian life. Casagemas (from a wealthy family) accompanied Picasso on his first Paris trip in autumn 1900, introducing him deeper into expatriate Catalan circles.
Positive influences:
There is no evidence that Casagemas had a "bad influence" on Picasso in life (e.g., leading him into destructive habits or derailing his art). Their relationship was supportive and fraternal during Casagemas's lifetime—Picasso even tried to "cheer him up" by traveling with him to Spain after early troubles in Paris. Any negativity stemmed from Casagemas's personal demons, not deliberate harm to Picasso.
The profound negative impact came after the suicide: It plunged Picasso into grief, guilt (possibly over later romancing Germaine), and depression, directly fueling the Blue Period's themes of isolation, poverty, and mortality. Picasso obsessively painted Casagemas posthumously as a way to process the loss.
In summary, Casagemas was a cherished friend whose tragic death transformed Picasso's art—not a malign influence while alive. The Blue Period's melancholy blues began as a direct response to that loss, not beforehand.
Timeline and the Onset of Picasso's Blue Period
Carlos (or Carles) Casagemas committed suicide on February 17, 1901, in a Paris café after a failed romantic obsession with Laure "Germaine" Gargallo (whom he attempted to shoot before turning the gun on himself). Picasso, then in Spain (Madrid or Málaga), learned of the death shortly afterward—likely in late February or early March.
Picasso himself later stated: "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death." This aligns with the conventional art historical view. Reliable sources (e.g., Wikipedia, Musée Picasso Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and biographies by John Richardson and others) date the Blue Period as beginning in late 1901 (often specified as the latter part or autumn of 1901), with fully monochromatic blue works dominating from around mid-1901 onward.
- Early 1901 (pre-suicide and immediately after): Picasso's works for his June 1901 exhibition at Ambroise Vollard's gallery in Paris featured a "dazzling palette" with bright, exuberant colors—influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh—depicting Parisian nightlife, cabarets, and bohemian scenes.
- The first memorial painting, The Death of Casagemas (early 1901, soon after the news), uses hot, bright hues (not predominantly blue).
- Truly blue-toned works emerge later in 1901, such as Casagemas in His Coffin (considered one of the first Blue Period pieces) and the iconic Blue Self-Portrait (summer/autumn 1901).
Your guess that the Blue Period trend started before Casagemas's suicide appears incorrect based on chronological evidence and expert consensus. The suicide was the primary catalyst, compounding earlier traumas (e.g., his sister Conchita's death in 1895) but marking the decisive emotional shift.
Casagemas's Influence on Picasso During His Lifetime
Casagemas and Picasso met around 1899 in Barcelona's avant-garde scene (centered at Els Quatre Gats café). They became close friends—sharing studios, travels, models, and bohemian life. Casagemas (from a wealthy family) accompanied Picasso on his first Paris trip in autumn 1900, introducing him deeper into expatriate Catalan circles.
Positive influences:
- Companionship in formative years: They collaborated artistically, traveled Spain together, and shared experiences in Paris nightlife.
- Mutual inspiration: Picasso painted numerous portraits of Casagemas (1899–1900), often affectionate or caricatural, reflecting a deep bond.
- Exposure: Their time in Paris immersed Picasso in Montmartre's vibrant (and seedy) world, influencing his early Parisian subjects.
There is no evidence that Casagemas had a "bad influence" on Picasso in life (e.g., leading him into destructive habits or derailing his art). Their relationship was supportive and fraternal during Casagemas's lifetime—Picasso even tried to "cheer him up" by traveling with him to Spain after early troubles in Paris. Any negativity stemmed from Casagemas's personal demons, not deliberate harm to Picasso.
The profound negative impact came after the suicide: It plunged Picasso into grief, guilt (possibly over later romancing Germaine), and depression, directly fueling the Blue Period's themes of isolation, poverty, and mortality. Picasso obsessively painted Casagemas posthumously as a way to process the loss.
In summary, Casagemas was a cherished friend whose tragic death transformed Picasso's art—not a malign influence while alive. The Blue Period's melancholy blues began as a direct response to that loss, not beforehand.
1901 Maternité
1988 SOLD for $ 24.7M by Christie's
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 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 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 The Absinthe Drinker
2010 SOLD for £ 35M by Christie's
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.
The portraits of friends are outstanding. 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.
After the conciliation of all parties. Christie's sold it for £ 35M on June 23, 2010.
The portraits of friends are outstanding. 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.
After the conciliation of all parties. Christie's sold it for £ 35M on June 23, 2010.
1905 Fillette à la Corbeille Fleurie
2018 SOLD for $ 115M by Christie's
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.
The miserability of his Période Bleue, 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. His painting loses its blue predominant to include warm colors like pink or orange. It is his Période Rose. These works include the Femme à l'éventail and two children, the Fillette à la corbeille de fleurs and the Garçon à la pipe.
The theme of poverty is now superseded by the optimistic and promising theme of children ready to enter adulthood. 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 was sold for $ 115M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 15.
Grok response :
Quote
Sol G. Moreno @solgmoreno May 10, 2018
SUBASTA HISTÓRICA #Picasso, amo y señor de la jornada del pasado martes en @ChristiesInc #NewYork con esta "Filllette à la corbeille fleurie" [102 millones dólares]. #WorldAuctionRecord
The miserability of his Période Bleue, 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. His painting loses its blue predominant to include warm colors like pink or orange. It is his Période Rose. These works include the Femme à l'éventail and two children, the Fillette à la corbeille de fleurs and the Garçon à la pipe.
The theme of poverty is now superseded by the optimistic and promising theme of children ready to enter adulthood. 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 was sold for $ 115M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 15.
Grok response :
Quote
Sol G. Moreno @solgmoreno May 10, 2018
SUBASTA HISTÓRICA #Picasso, amo y señor de la jornada del pasado martes en @ChristiesInc #NewYork con esta "Filllette à la corbeille fleurie" [102 millones dólares]. #WorldAuctionRecord
- The painting "Fillette à la corbeille fleurie" by Pablo Picasso, sold for $102 million at Christie’s in 2018, was created in 1905 during his Rose Period, marking a shift from his earlier Blue Period and reflecting a more optimistic tone influenced by his relationship with Fernande Olivier, as noted in J. Richardson’s 1991 biography.
- This auction set a world record for Picasso at the time, part of the Rockefeller Collection sale, which also included Monet’s "Nymphéas en fleur" for $75 million, highlighting a surprising surge in value for early 20th-century art amid a 2018 global art market boom, with Christie’s reporting $5 billion in sales that year.
- Art historians debate the painting’s subject, possibly a young model named "Linda," with studies like those in the 1971 National Gallery of Canada exhibition suggesting it critiques societal innocence, challenging the mainstream view of it as merely decorative.
1905 Le Garçon à la Pipe
2004 SOLD for $ 104M by Sotheby's
Le 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".
Le Garçon, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 104M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004, lot 7.
Asked to Grok 4 : define its position in Picasso's career.
Grok thought :
"Le Garçon à la Pipe" (Boy with a Pipe), painted by Pablo Picasso in 1905, holds a significant position in his early career as a hallmark of his Rose Period. This period, spanning from 1904 to 1906, followed his melancholic Blue Period (1901-1904) and marked a shift toward warmer colors, such as pinks and oranges, and more optimistic themes influenced by his relationship with Fernande Olivier and his fascination with circus performers and harlequins.At the age of 24, Picasso created this oil on canvas portrait in his Montmartre studio, depicting a young Parisian boy known as "P'tit Louis," who frequented the area. The painting features the boy seated, holding a pipe, and adorned with a wreath of roses, set against a floral background. It exemplifies the transitional nature of Picasso's work at this time, blending realistic portraiture with symbolic elements and a dreamlike quality.
This piece not only represents Picasso's evolving style but also his growing establishment in the Parisian art scene. Following the Rose Period, Picasso would move into his African-influenced period and eventually co-found Cubism, revolutionizing modern art. "Le Garçon à la Pipe" thus stands as a pivotal work in his pre-Cubist phase, showcasing his mastery of color and form before his more radical innovations.
The painting gained further notoriety when it was sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for $104.2 million, setting a record at the time for the most expensive painting ever auctioned.
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".
Le Garçon, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 104M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004, lot 7.
Asked to Grok 4 : define its position in Picasso's career.
Grok thought :
"Le Garçon à la Pipe" (Boy with a Pipe), painted by Pablo Picasso in 1905, holds a significant position in his early career as a hallmark of his Rose Period. This period, spanning from 1904 to 1906, followed his melancholic Blue Period (1901-1904) and marked a shift toward warmer colors, such as pinks and oranges, and more optimistic themes influenced by his relationship with Fernande Olivier and his fascination with circus performers and harlequins.At the age of 24, Picasso created this oil on canvas portrait in his Montmartre studio, depicting a young Parisian boy known as "P'tit Louis," who frequented the area. The painting features the boy seated, holding a pipe, and adorned with a wreath of roses, set against a floral background. It exemplifies the transitional nature of Picasso's work at this time, blending realistic portraiture with symbolic elements and a dreamlike quality.
This piece not only represents Picasso's evolving style but also his growing establishment in the Parisian art scene. Following the Rose Period, Picasso would move into his African-influenced period and eventually co-found Cubism, revolutionizing modern art. "Le Garçon à la Pipe" thus stands as a pivotal work in his pre-Cubist phase, showcasing his mastery of color and form before his more radical innovations.
The painting gained further notoriety when it was sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for $104.2 million, setting a record at the time for the most expensive painting ever auctioned.
1905 Les Noces de Pierrette
1989 SOLD for FF 315M by Binoche et Godeau
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 group 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, 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 group 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, 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
1989 SOLD for $ 41M by Sotheby's
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 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 atmosphere.
Grok thought :
Quote
Alex Jacob @whoisalexjacob Apr 12, 2019
Au Lapin Agile (1904), Pablo Picasso Sold in 1989 for $40.7 million to Walter Annenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. and publisher of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine. Bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), where it is currently on display.
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 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 atmosphere.
Grok thought :
Quote
Alex Jacob @whoisalexjacob Apr 12, 2019
Au Lapin Agile (1904), Pablo Picasso Sold in 1989 for $40.7 million to Walter Annenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. and publisher of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine. Bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), where it is currently on display.
- This post catalogs the 1989 Sotheby's auction of Pablo Picasso's 1904 Rose Period painting "Au Lapin Agile," depicting the artist and poet Max Jacob in a Montmartre cabaret, sold for $40.7 million to media magnate Walter Annenberg.
- It forms part of Jeopardy! champion Alex Jacob's trivia thread on late-1980s art market highs, where Japanese buyers fueled records like van Gogh's $82.5 million "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" the next year, signaling a speculative boom.
- The work, bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002, remains on permanent display there, its sale price equivalent to about $100 million today amid persistent inflation in Modern art valuations.
1905 Acrobate et Jeune Arlequin
1988 SOLD for £ 21M (worth $ 38.5M at that time) by Christie's
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, 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, from a lower estimate of £ 10M. It is illustrated in the post sale article by Judd Tully, the Washington Post art critic.
