Picasso in Mougins
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Sculpture by painters Man and woman Music and dance Animals
Chronology : 1962 1967 1968 1969 1970
See also : Sculpture by painters Man and woman Music and dance Animals
Chronology : 1962 1967 1968 1969 1970
Intro
Settled in Mougins with Jacqueline since June 1961, Pablo Picasso begins a new life. His wife adores him. They live together apart from society as an ordinary couple despite their 45 years of age difference.
Up to his death in 1973, Picasso exacerbates his passion for artistic creation. He paints very quickly, as if he is in a hurry. Sometimes he feels that he is creating a masterpiece. Le Peintre et son modèle dans un paysage was painted in ten iterations from June to September 1963. This oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm passed at Christie's on November 5, 2013 with a lower estimate of $ 25M.
At the end of 1966 after a long illness, Picasso restarts his most carnal theme, the expression of the sensuality of the woman in love. The woman exhibits her whole anatomy, like in the famous image by Courbet. In the feverish imagination of Picasso, she is Jacqueline, although Jacqueline never posed for him. The man is naked at her side, often without the attributes of an artist. Picasso also confronts the nude woman with other emanations of himself such as the musician or the musketeer.
Young people are indeed restless at that time, with the protest movements of 1968 and the Woodstock festival in the following year. They are more appealed by the new style of Picasso than by Van Dyck or Velazquez. The images of Pablo are sharp, without those cubist distortions of the faces that were beginning to bother his own admirers.
Up to his death in 1973, Picasso exacerbates his passion for artistic creation. He paints very quickly, as if he is in a hurry. Sometimes he feels that he is creating a masterpiece. Le Peintre et son modèle dans un paysage was painted in ten iterations from June to September 1963. This oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm passed at Christie's on November 5, 2013 with a lower estimate of $ 25M.
At the end of 1966 after a long illness, Picasso restarts his most carnal theme, the expression of the sensuality of the woman in love. The woman exhibits her whole anatomy, like in the famous image by Courbet. In the feverish imagination of Picasso, she is Jacqueline, although Jacqueline never posed for him. The man is naked at her side, often without the attributes of an artist. Picasso also confronts the nude woman with other emanations of himself such as the musician or the musketeer.
Young people are indeed restless at that time, with the protest movements of 1968 and the Woodstock festival in the following year. They are more appealed by the new style of Picasso than by Van Dyck or Velazquez. The images of Pablo are sharp, without those cubist distortions of the faces that were beginning to bother his own admirers.
1962 Femme au Chien
2019 SOLD for $ 55M by Sotheby's
Picasso changes his life. In March 1961 he marries Jacqueline, his muse since 1954. Pablo is 80 years old, she is 35. In June the newlyweds leave Cannes to settle in Mougins.
In their vast Provençal mas, they manage to have an ordinary life. Both love dogs. The dachshund Lump has been rejoined since 1960 by an Afghan hound named Kaboul who becomes Jacqueline's favorite. Pablo executes no less than six oil paintings on the theme of Jacqueline and her kind dog.
On May 14, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 55M from a lower estimate of $ 25M Femme au chien, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm painted in 1962, lot 33. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The woman is seated. Kaboul stands on his four high legs. These two characters are in a static attitude. The position of Jacqueline's hands displays a quiet closeness.
Curiously their graphic processing is different. Kaboul is almost realistic, except that his haggard eyes and slight smile are not indeed marks of intelligence. The woman's face is unstructured in four angles of view. The left eye and the mouth are inserted in two opposite profiles. The right eye is seen from full front and the portrait is completed on the right side by the profile of an abundant ponytail.
In their vast Provençal mas, they manage to have an ordinary life. Both love dogs. The dachshund Lump has been rejoined since 1960 by an Afghan hound named Kaboul who becomes Jacqueline's favorite. Pablo executes no less than six oil paintings on the theme of Jacqueline and her kind dog.
On May 14, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 55M from a lower estimate of $ 25M Femme au chien, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm painted in 1962, lot 33. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The woman is seated. Kaboul stands on his four high legs. These two characters are in a static attitude. The position of Jacqueline's hands displays a quiet closeness.
Curiously their graphic processing is different. Kaboul is almost realistic, except that his haggard eyes and slight smile are not indeed marks of intelligence. The woman's face is unstructured in four angles of view. The left eye and the mouth are inserted in two opposite profiles. The right eye is seen from full front and the portrait is completed on the right side by the profile of an abundant ponytail.
1962 Projet pour Apollinaire
2021 SOLD for $ 26.3M by Sotheby's
The poet Guillaume Apollinaire had been a keen supporter of all the Parisian avant-gardes. In the early 1910s he had defined Cubisme as an art that would escape the reality of vision. Picasso maintained a lifelong obligation for his friend.
Picasso contemplated the idea of an Apotheosis fo Apollinaire in the lifetime of the poet. Both were born in the same year, 1881. After the untimely death of Apollinaire in 1918, a memorial committee created by André Billy desired a monument for the grave of their friend in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise. Picasso was the natural candidate for the project with a scheduled date of 1928 for its inauguration.
At that time Picasso was a mad lover of Marie-Thérèse. A first proposal loaded with eroticism was unanimously rejected by the committee. Picasso then tried his hand to a completely unprecedented sculptural style. Supported by his friend the welder artist Julio Gonzalez, he defined a weightless volume composed of and delimited by steel wire and topped by a tiny head. It was also rejected.
The tribute to Apollinaire remained in the mind of Picasso. In 1959 he donated a Tête de Dora as a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés. An artist's proof of this bronze was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
That tribute was not sufficient for Picasso. In 1962 he reused and enlarged the design prepared three decades earlier with Gonzalez. Gonzalez had died in 1942. Now supported by the blacksmith Joseph-Marius Tiola, he executed for his own collection a unique Figure in welded steel 120 cm high. This sculpture was sold for $ 26.3M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 7.
Picasso contemplated the idea of an Apotheosis fo Apollinaire in the lifetime of the poet. Both were born in the same year, 1881. After the untimely death of Apollinaire in 1918, a memorial committee created by André Billy desired a monument for the grave of their friend in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise. Picasso was the natural candidate for the project with a scheduled date of 1928 for its inauguration.
At that time Picasso was a mad lover of Marie-Thérèse. A first proposal loaded with eroticism was unanimously rejected by the committee. Picasso then tried his hand to a completely unprecedented sculptural style. Supported by his friend the welder artist Julio Gonzalez, he defined a weightless volume composed of and delimited by steel wire and topped by a tiny head. It was also rejected.
The tribute to Apollinaire remained in the mind of Picasso. In 1959 he donated a Tête de Dora as a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés. An artist's proof of this bronze was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
That tribute was not sufficient for Picasso. In 1962 he reused and enlarged the design prepared three decades earlier with Gonzalez. Gonzalez had died in 1942. Now supported by the blacksmith Joseph-Marius Tiola, he executed for his own collection a unique Figure in welded steel 120 cm high. This sculpture was sold for $ 26.3M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 7.
1967 L'Aubade
2011 SOLD for $ 23M by Sotheby's
Since the Middle Ages, music accompanies the joy of living in love. In the morning, the musician is enchanting the lovers with the aubade. In the evening, he concludes the day with the serenade.
Jacqueline Picasso, naked, is still in bed. Beside her, a fiery bearded Faun plays the flute, symbolic instrument of original music. The hirsute character is her husband, Pablo, who is both the musician and the lover of this aubade.
Jacqueline is in ecstasy, both eyes wide open. On this oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm painted in June 1967, the woman's face is barely cubist, but one of her cheeks is distorted as if it were drawn by the flute.
Picasso, then 86 years old, wanted to stay young forever and continue to enjoy the sensory pleasures. The friendly side of this otherwise exuberant work is the gift of music to the beloved. It indeed marks the ridiculous and inevitable conflict between sexuality and aging.
L'Aubade was sold for $ 23M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011, lot 35.
Jacqueline Picasso, naked, is still in bed. Beside her, a fiery bearded Faun plays the flute, symbolic instrument of original music. The hirsute character is her husband, Pablo, who is both the musician and the lover of this aubade.
Jacqueline is in ecstasy, both eyes wide open. On this oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm painted in June 1967, the woman's face is barely cubist, but one of her cheeks is distorted as if it were drawn by the flute.
Picasso, then 86 years old, wanted to stay young forever and continue to enjoy the sensory pleasures. The friendly side of this otherwise exuberant work is the gift of music to the beloved. It indeed marks the ridiculous and inevitable conflict between sexuality and aging.
L'Aubade was sold for $ 23M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011, lot 35.
Mousquetaires
Intro
After a long convalescence Pablo Picasso takes his brushes again at the end of 1966. He cannot smoke anymore and is sexually disabled. He compensates for this handicap by the theme of the couple including his wife Jacqueline naked in various positions. Cubist distortions are now minimized.
Pablo admires Rembrandt and Velazquez as well as the vitality with which the men of their time were pictured. Through Velazquez he also sees his native Spain.
Throughout 1967 he develops the portraiture of singled musketeers as a symbol of virility while he remains aware of the illusion of his own boasting. He even went to sign a 1967 Mousquetaire assis as "Domenico Theotocopulos van Rijn da Silva".
Pablo admires Rembrandt and Velazquez as well as the vitality with which the men of their time were pictured. Through Velazquez he also sees his native Spain.
Throughout 1967 he develops the portraiture of singled musketeers as a symbol of virility while he remains aware of the illusion of his own boasting. He even went to sign a 1967 Mousquetaire assis as "Domenico Theotocopulos van Rijn da Silva".
1
October 1968 Mousquetaire à la Pipe
2019 SOLD for $ 20.8M by Sotheby's
Picasso hardly travels anymore. Jacqueline and Mougins constitute the surrounding of his life. His doctor forbids him to smoke. In the wide world, life continues with a new and ephemeral truculence brought by the sexual freedom.
He then enters a period of intense creativity, with glaring colors. His art is populated with picturesque characters : the musketeers, the impressionists, his naked wife, later the matadors. This cartoon-like style pleases the public. Art critics see it as a fantasy but no matter : now Picasso works a lot for himself, against his own aging.
On May 14, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 20.8M Mousquetaire à la pipe, oil on canvas 145 x 96 cm painted in 1968, lot 40. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This musketeer on bust length is engaging and funny. The drawing is very effective : a few loops for a wig like that of Louis XIV, the mustache that goes up like a smile, five small strokes for the goatee. The difference between the two eyes can be interpreted as a start for a wink.
He is also somehow a self-portrait, like the previous harlequin, minotaur and sailor. He is a twin brother to a substitute for a Rembrandt's self-portrait that Picasso painted alongside Jacqueline in the nude in 1967, and which was sold for £ 13.7M by Christie's in 2018.
He then enters a period of intense creativity, with glaring colors. His art is populated with picturesque characters : the musketeers, the impressionists, his naked wife, later the matadors. This cartoon-like style pleases the public. Art critics see it as a fantasy but no matter : now Picasso works a lot for himself, against his own aging.
On May 14, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 20.8M Mousquetaire à la pipe, oil on canvas 145 x 96 cm painted in 1968, lot 40. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This musketeer on bust length is engaging and funny. The drawing is very effective : a few loops for a wig like that of Louis XIV, the mustache that goes up like a smile, five small strokes for the goatee. The difference between the two eyes can be interpreted as a start for a wink.
He is also somehow a self-portrait, like the previous harlequin, minotaur and sailor. He is a twin brother to a substitute for a Rembrandt's self-portrait that Picasso painted alongside Jacqueline in the nude in 1967, and which was sold for £ 13.7M by Christie's in 2018.
2
November 1968 Mousquetaire à la Pipe
2021 SOLD for $ 35M by Christie's
On November 5, 1968, Picasso completed two paintings of the Musketeer with a pipe. The opus II, oil and Ripolin on canvas 146 x 96 cm, was sold for $ 35M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 34C.
The seated figure is sharply dressed in the military fashion of Velazquez time, including the 17th century thick curled wig. He looks towering with his top of the head and bent left leg that reach the frame. He is inviting to pleasure with his candid wide open eyes, the cool seating attitude, the elegant curving of the long pipe stem and the vibrant blue hues.
An Homme à la Pipe, oil and Ripolin on canvas 130 x 97 cm painted by Picasso on November 27, 1968, was sold for $ 15.4M in the same sale as above, lot 58C. The painting is made of appealing near childish curves, swirls, lines and spots in a full range of pure colors. A transparent smoke is raising over the pipe. This seated figure is obviously a Mousquetaire although this qualifier is not in the title.
The seated figure is sharply dressed in the military fashion of Velazquez time, including the 17th century thick curled wig. He looks towering with his top of the head and bent left leg that reach the frame. He is inviting to pleasure with his candid wide open eyes, the cool seating attitude, the elegant curving of the long pipe stem and the vibrant blue hues.
An Homme à la Pipe, oil and Ripolin on canvas 130 x 97 cm painted by Picasso on November 27, 1968, was sold for $ 15.4M in the same sale as above, lot 58C. The painting is made of appealing near childish curves, swirls, lines and spots in a full range of pure colors. A transparent smoke is raising over the pipe. This seated figure is obviously a Mousquetaire although this qualifier is not in the title.
3
March 1969 Mousquetaire à la Pipe
2013 SOLD for $ 31M by Sotheby's
In 1966, Pablo Picasso is recovering. Despite his fragile health, the artist has kept his frenzy of creation, but his relationship to the world has changed. He no longer travels and is afraid of being jostled by a crowd.
His Musketeers are an offshoot of the masculinity that still excites the old man, but it is difficult to regard them as self-portraits. They are instead his companions of adventures. The temperament of the male transcends time: Picasso compares the soldiers from Rembrandt's time with the hippies of the sexual revolution.
The art of Picasso becomes a wink of complicity with youth. For the first time, his theme is decidedly humorous. The French boys, always fans of Alexandre Dumas, are delighted. They do not consider the dominant red and gold of these paintings that also mark the artist's refusal to return to Franco's Spain. Art critics are skeptical, except Zervos.
Pablo combines his own styles within that series as he has done since the early 1930s. A decidedly cubist Mousquetaire à la pipe, oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm painted on March 5, 1969, was sold for $ 31M by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013 from a lower estimate of $ 12M, lot 29.
His Musketeers are an offshoot of the masculinity that still excites the old man, but it is difficult to regard them as self-portraits. They are instead his companions of adventures. The temperament of the male transcends time: Picasso compares the soldiers from Rembrandt's time with the hippies of the sexual revolution.
The art of Picasso becomes a wink of complicity with youth. For the first time, his theme is decidedly humorous. The French boys, always fans of Alexandre Dumas, are delighted. They do not consider the dominant red and gold of these paintings that also mark the artist's refusal to return to Franco's Spain. Art critics are skeptical, except Zervos.
Pablo combines his own styles within that series as he has done since the early 1930s. A decidedly cubist Mousquetaire à la pipe, oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm painted on March 5, 1969, was sold for $ 31M by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013 from a lower estimate of $ 12M, lot 29.
4
July 1969 L'Homme à l'Epée
2015 SOLD for $ 22.6M by Christie's
L'Homme à l'épée, oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm painted by Picasso on July 25, 1969 during the preparation of the Woodstock festival, is undoubtedly a hidalgo. He is a bodyguard of the old artist in his approach to the new world. The face that is only slightly deformed outside the aggressive gaze is perhaps a tribute to Velazquez. On the following year, Picasso approves the choice of this picture for the poster of the exhibition of his most recent art in Avignon.
L'Homme à l'épée was sold for £ 7M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2009 and for $ 22.6M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 20A.
L'Homme à l'épée was sold for £ 7M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2009 and for $ 22.6M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 20A.
July 1969 Homme et Enfant
2021 SOLD for $ 24.4M by Sotheby's
Pablo Picasso had the great exhibition of his later art in the prestigious venue of the Palais des Papes in Avignon. It was opened in May 1970 during the Festival d'Avignon by its founder Jean Vilar. The event, conceived and operated by Yvonne Zervos, managed to display the whole work made by Picasso from January 1969 to February 1970.
Those who imagined that they appreciated Picasso's art were disturbed and angry. The 88 year old master had once more changed his style. Speedily applied vibrant colors with childlike lines were illustrating an unleashed obscenity beside his new theme of the Mousquetaires and his still beloved dove and child.
It was to wait until a 1988 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou for finally understanding how much his 'senile' period had been a breakthrough, far away from everything else in post war art. The art market followed much later.
Homme et Enfant, identified as 'Personnages' at Avignon, is an oil and ripolin on canvas painted on July 4, 1969. It is one of Picasso's largest paintings for that period, 195 x 130 cm, over life size.
A child is walking from the right side in front of a delighted man. Both are bare footed and possibly fully naked. The man with a narrow beard is not a self portrait. The dynamic boy with a clown's hat is a reminder that childhood was the support to hope during the période rose 64 years earlier.
Homme et enfant was sold for $ 24.4M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 6.
Those who imagined that they appreciated Picasso's art were disturbed and angry. The 88 year old master had once more changed his style. Speedily applied vibrant colors with childlike lines were illustrating an unleashed obscenity beside his new theme of the Mousquetaires and his still beloved dove and child.
It was to wait until a 1988 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou for finally understanding how much his 'senile' period had been a breakthrough, far away from everything else in post war art. The art market followed much later.
Homme et Enfant, identified as 'Personnages' at Avignon, is an oil and ripolin on canvas painted on July 4, 1969. It is one of Picasso's largest paintings for that period, 195 x 130 cm, over life size.
A child is walking from the right side in front of a delighted man. Both are bare footed and possibly fully naked. The man with a narrow beard is not a self portrait. The dynamic boy with a clown's hat is a reminder that childhood was the support to hope during the période rose 64 years earlier.
Homme et enfant was sold for $ 24.4M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 6.
October 1969 L'Etreinte
2021 SOLD for £ 14.7M by Christie's
Painted in October 1969 while in seclusion with Jacqueline in Mougins, L'Etreinte is a later opus in Picasso's carnal series, like a final view of his erotic passion.
The recumbent nude couple is closely embracing. The oversized limbs brings a hot pleasure to the action. The ecstatic dark haired woman is undoubtedly Jacqueline. The bright and joyous colors are in the following of the just completed Mousquetaires.
L'Etreinte, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for £ 14.7M by Christie's on June 30, 2021, lot 8.
The recumbent nude couple is closely embracing. The oversized limbs brings a hot pleasure to the action. The ecstatic dark haired woman is undoubtedly Jacqueline. The bright and joyous colors are in the following of the just completed Mousquetaires.
L'Etreinte, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for £ 14.7M by Christie's on June 30, 2021, lot 8.
1970 Le Matador
2018 SOLD for £ 16.5M by Sotheby's
Aged 89 Pablo Picasso attends a corrida de toros in Fréjus. How could he have abandoned for so long his former craze for bullfighting ? The matador is a symbol of virility and bravery as well as the musketeer, and less obsolete. He is also an emblem of Spain.
With his sequined coat (traje de luces), the matador is the symbol of the Spanish entertainment. The last homogeneous series executed by Picasso explores this theme in fifteen paintings made between September 27 and October 23, 1970. Nevertheless it is the human being and not the bull or the faena that excites the artist in what will be his last thematic series
The matador thus succeeds the mosquetero, with whom he has in common the sword, a symbol of virility and indirectly of the nostalgia of the aging artist. In addition the mosquetero had a pipe, the use of which is now forbidden to Pablo by his doctors.
The matador benefits from a mid length composition, which is simpler, less crazy and ultimately much more optimistic. The mosquetero was the memory of the glorious past. The matador is the conscientious libertador of the new Spain, wounded by Franco's civil war.
The hard work does not weaken. Pablo dates four oils on canvas on September 27 alone. The first three are studies for the fourth. This Buste de Matador IV, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, is based on the very dynamic contrast of two complementary colors, light blue and dark orange. This painting was sold for HK $ 140M by Sotheby's on April 18, 2021, lot 8005.
In his Matador series, Picasso revisits various styles from his long career as he had done fifteen years earlier in Les Femmes d'Alger. As for that example the final opus is the most complex and the best completed. On February 28, 2018, Sotheby's sold for £ 16.5M this oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm dated October 23, 1970, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This robust man is much larger than life. He holds the sword, an essential instrument of his function. Except for his fanciful musketeer's hat, his clothes copy a portrait of a matador painted by Goya around 1797. The background is not plain as in the previous paintings of the series : the torero poses in the middle of the sand colored arena and a pattern of hatching simulates the spectators who are waiting for the action on the seats.
With his wide open eyes and his clenched mouth, the attitude of the man is severe. His game is dangerous. Despite the poor health of the artist, this work with a good psychological expression is a picturesque evocation of the Spanish culture and not a presentiment of his next appointment with death.
This final piece in the series is a portrait in an almost realistic style, without the dual perspective of the face.
With his sequined coat (traje de luces), the matador is the symbol of the Spanish entertainment. The last homogeneous series executed by Picasso explores this theme in fifteen paintings made between September 27 and October 23, 1970. Nevertheless it is the human being and not the bull or the faena that excites the artist in what will be his last thematic series
The matador thus succeeds the mosquetero, with whom he has in common the sword, a symbol of virility and indirectly of the nostalgia of the aging artist. In addition the mosquetero had a pipe, the use of which is now forbidden to Pablo by his doctors.
The matador benefits from a mid length composition, which is simpler, less crazy and ultimately much more optimistic. The mosquetero was the memory of the glorious past. The matador is the conscientious libertador of the new Spain, wounded by Franco's civil war.
The hard work does not weaken. Pablo dates four oils on canvas on September 27 alone. The first three are studies for the fourth. This Buste de Matador IV, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, is based on the very dynamic contrast of two complementary colors, light blue and dark orange. This painting was sold for HK $ 140M by Sotheby's on April 18, 2021, lot 8005.
In his Matador series, Picasso revisits various styles from his long career as he had done fifteen years earlier in Les Femmes d'Alger. As for that example the final opus is the most complex and the best completed. On February 28, 2018, Sotheby's sold for £ 16.5M this oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm dated October 23, 1970, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This robust man is much larger than life. He holds the sword, an essential instrument of his function. Except for his fanciful musketeer's hat, his clothes copy a portrait of a matador painted by Goya around 1797. The background is not plain as in the previous paintings of the series : the torero poses in the middle of the sand colored arena and a pattern of hatching simulates the spectators who are waiting for the action on the seats.
With his wide open eyes and his clenched mouth, the attitude of the man is severe. His game is dangerous. Despite the poor health of the artist, this work with a good psychological expression is a picturesque evocation of the Spanish culture and not a presentiment of his next appointment with death.
This final piece in the series is a portrait in an almost realistic style, without the dual perspective of the face.
