In the summer of 1915, a year after the outbreak of World War I and the mobilization of friends such as Georges Braque, André Derain, and Guillaume Apollinaire, Picasso found himself reconstructing his own life in Paris. Although the art market had ground to a halt, Picasso was casting about for a new dealer. He had always made portraits of the dealers he was wooing, so in August he made this pencil portrait of Ambroise Vollard in imitation of Ingres; it was his second effort in this style. Picasso shows Vollard sitting on a chair in his new studio on the rue Schoelcher. Although Vollard famously enjoyed sitting for artists—"He has the vanity of a woman," Picasso told Françoise Gilot—Picasso drew from a photograph, following it quite closely.
Vollard (1866-1939) was one of the most extraordinary art dealers of the twentieth century; his support of artists such as Cézanne, Gauguin, and Picasso, from 1906–11, was crucial. From his first show at Vollard's gallery on the rue Laffitte in 1901, through his creation, in the 1930s, of the set of one hundred etchings known as the Vollard Suite, Picasso had great but wary respect for the canny dealer and even, as one sees in this portrait, some affection. Although Vollard never gave Picasso the contract he wanted, he kept this drawing until his death.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (in graphite, lower right): Picasso/ Paris Aout 1915
Ambroise Vollard, Paris (1915–d. 1939; purchased from the artist in August 1915 for Fr 500; his estate, from 1939); [Martin Fabiani, Paris]; [André Weil, New York, until 1947; sold in December 1947, through John Rewald, to MMA]
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Art Institute of Chicago. "Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition," October 29–December 8, 1957, unnumbered cat.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of His Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints and Illustrated Books," January 8–February 23, 1958, no. 76.
Rotterdam. Museum Boymans. "Van Clouet tot Matisse, Tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collecties," July 31–September 28, 1958, no. 217.
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "De Clouet à Matisse, dessins français des collections américaines," October–November 1958, no. 217.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse," February 3–March 15, 1959, no. 217.
Fort Worth Art Center Museum. "Picasso: Two Concurrent Retrospective Exhibitions," February 8–March 26, 1967, no. 171.
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Paris. Cabinet des dessins, Musée du Louvre. "Dessins français du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York de David à Picasso," October 25, 1973–January 7, 1974, no. 75.
New York. Wildenstein Gallery. "Modern Portraits: The Self and Others; an Exhibition Organized by the Department of Art History and Archaeology of Columbia University in the City of New York," October 21–November 28, 1976, no. 96.
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Toronto. Art Gallery of Ontario. "Impresario Ambroise Vollard," October 22–December 4, 1978, not in catalogue (unnumbered checklist).
Urbana-Champaign. Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois. "Impresario Ambroise Vollard," January 15–February 19, 1978, not in catalogue (unnumbered checklist).
Toledo Museum of Art. "Impresario Ambroise Vollard," March 19–April 23, 1978, not in catalogue (unnumbered checklist).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective," May 22–September 16, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p. 192).
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New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation," April 28–September 17, 1996, unnumbered cat. (p. 299).
Paris. Grand Palais. "Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation," October 15, 1996–January 20, 1997, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 154.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," February 17–May 13, 2007, no. 154.
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Roland Penrose. Picasso: His Life and His Work. New York, 1958, p. 192.
Jakob Rosenberg. Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso. Cambridge, Mass., 1959, pp. 205–6, pl. 131.
Maurice Jardot. Pablo Picasso Drawings. New York, 1959, p. 155, ill. p. 42.
Robert Rosenblum. Cubism and Twentieth-Century Art. New York, 1960, pp. 86, 98, 319, fig. 56.
Arthur Millier. The Drawings of Picasso. Los Angeles, 1961, ill.
John Richardson, ed. Picasso: An American Tribute. Exh. cat., Saidenberg Gallery. New York, 1962, unpaginated.
Jacob Bean. 100 European Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, [1964?], unpaginated, no. 97, ill.
Hans Ludwig C. Jaffé. Pablo Picasso. New York, 1964, p. 20, fig. 19.
Michel Sanouillet. Francis Picabia et 391. Paris, 1966, p. 251.
Hans Ludwig C. Jaffé. Pablo Picasso. Paris, 1967, p. 18, fig. 19.
Jean Leymarie. Picasso Drawings. Geneva, 1967, pp. 44–45, 106, ill.
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Tom Prideaux. "Terrible Ladies of Avignon–Cubism." Life Magazine 65 (December 27, 1968), p. 58, ill.
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William John Mahar. "Neo-Classicism in the Twentieth Century: A Study of the Idea and Its Relationship to Selected Works of Stravinsky and Picasso." PhD diss., Syracuse University, 1972, pp. 446, 449–55, 463, fig. 5.
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"Public Museum News." Art Journal 33 (Summer 1974), p. 360, calls it "Portrait of Vollard".
Timothy Hilton. Picasso. London, 1975, pp. 131–33, 280, fig. 94.
Janet Hobhouse. Everybody Who Was Anybody: A Biography of Gertrude Stein. New York, 1975, p. ix, ill.
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Pierre Daix. La Vie de peintre de Pablo Picasso. Paris, 1977, p. 147.
Robin Gibson. 20th Century Portraits. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery. London, 1978, p. 9, fig. 5.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston, 1979, pp. 164, 170–71, ill.
Mary Mathews Gedo. Picasso: Art as Autobiography. Chicago, 1980, pp. 106–7, ill.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: The Early Years, 1881–1907. New York, 1981, chronology.
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Pablo Picasso. Tokyo, 1981, p. 103, ill.
Jean Jouvet, ed. Pablo Picasso, der Zeichner: Dreihundert Zeichnungen und Graphiken, 1893–1972. Zürich, 1982, p. 123, pl. 48.
Gary Tinterow, ed. Juan Gris (1887–1927). Exh. cat., Salas Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Madrid, 1985, p. 49, ill.
Theodore Reff inJe suis le cahier: The Sketchbooks of Pablo Picasso. Ed. Arne Glimcher and Marc Glimcher. Exh. cat., Pace Gallery. New York, 1986, p. 82.
Pierre Daix. Picasso créateur: La Vie intime et l'oeuvre. Paris, 1987, p. 170.
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Patricia Leighten. Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897–1914. Princeton, 1989, p. xiv, fig. 106.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, p. 521, no. 1336, ill. p. 444.
Christian Geelhaar. Picasso: Wegbereiter und Förderer seines Aufstiegs, 1899–1939. Zürich, 1993, p. 19, fig. 7.
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John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 2, 1907–1917. New York, 1996, p. 359, ill.
Arnauld Pierre inFrancis Picabia: Les Nus et la méthode. Exh. cat., Musée de Grenoble. Paris, 1997, pp. 14–15, fig. 27.
Paul Hayes Tucker inMonet in the 20th Century. Ed. Paul Hayes Tucker and Mary Anne Stevens. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1998, p. 72, fig. 55 (color).
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Rachel Mustalish inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 175.
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Professor of Art History Christopher Green discusses Picasso’s foray into Cubism before his invention of collage primarily through his figure drawings.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1955, printed 1961
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