Chocolate pots, popular in turn-of-the-century France, are usually distinguished by their short spout (partially shown here as a dark triangle on the left side of the pot), angled handle, and hole in the lid. What may appear to be a straw is actually the stem of the frother or stirrer, which was rolled between one’s palms to blend together the ingredients. Picasso enjoyed perceptual ambiguities, such as the spout of the chocolate pot that simultaneously defines the curved pedestal of the adjacent compote.
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Inscription: Signed [possibly at a later date] (upper right, in black paint): Picasso [underlined after P]
Marking: watermark: J C A
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, ca. 1909– d. 1939; his bequest to de Galéa]; his friend, Madame Madeleine de Galéa (née Madeleine Moreau), Paris (1939–53; sold in 1953 to Reid & Lefevre]; [Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., London, 1953; sold on July 28, 1953 to Cooper]; Douglas Cooper, Argilliers, France (1953– d. 1984; stolen in 1974 from Cooper’s Château de Castille and recovered in 1980; estate no. DC 28/27; his bequest to McCarty Cooper); his partner and adopted son, William McCarty Cooper, London (1984–86; sold in November 1986 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (from 1986–2013; transferred on April 8, 2013 to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust); The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust, New York (2013–16; gift to MMA)
London. Tate Gallery. "The Essential Cubism, 1907–1920: Braque, Picasso & their friends," April 27–July 10, 1983, extended to July 31, 1983, no. 159.
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus," November 22, 1987–January 17, 1988, no. 53.
London. Tate Gallery. "Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism," February 3–April 4, 1988, no. 53.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso, Braque, Léger, Gris: Drawings from the Douglas Cooper Collection," June 16–July 31, 1988, no catalogue.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 122; as [spring] 1909).
Houston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," October 14–December 30, 1990, no. 56.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," January 31–April 21, 1991, no. 56.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "1908–1914: Cubist Drawings Collected by Douglas Cooper," June 12–October 4, 1991, no catalogue.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Facets of Cubism," December 7, 2005–April 16, 2006, not in brochure.
New York. Frick Collection. "Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition," October 4, 2011–January 8, 2012, no. 43.
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition," January 29–May 6, 2012, no. 43.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 53.
New York. Acquavella Galleries. "Picasso: Seven Decades of Drawing," October 7–December 3, 2021, unnumbered cat. (pl. 16; as "La chocolatière [The Chocolate Pot]").
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2a, Works from 1906 to 1912. Paris, 1942, unpaginated (list of plates), no. 131, pl. 68.
Franco Russoli. Pablo Picasso. Exh. cat., Palazzo Reale. Milan, 1953, p. 38, no. 16, ill.
John Richardson. Pablo Picasso: Watercolours and Gouaches. London, 1964, pp. 9, 38, pl. 12.
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 98, no. 218, ill.
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 98, no. 218, ill.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1979, French]. Boston, 1979, pp. 53, 66, 232, no. 223, ill., and ill. p. 58.
Douglas Cooper and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & their friends, 1907–1920. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1983, p. 324, no. 159, ill. p. 325.
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel, 1987, pp. 26, 28, 136, 211, no. 53, ill. p. 139 and cover.
William Rubin, ed. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1989, ill. p. 122 (German ed., 1990, fig. 67; French ed., 1990, and Spanish ed., 1991, ill. p. 116).
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. Houston, 1990, p. 66, no. 56.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, pp. 121, 500, no. 332, ill. p. 120.
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 2, 1907–1917. New York, 1996, ill. p. 103.
Martin Faass. Lyonel Feininger und der Kubismus. Frankfurt am Main, 1999, pp. 24, 101, fig. 3.
Maria Antònia Martí Escayol. El plaer de la xocolata: La història i cultura de la xocolata a Catalunya. Valls, 2004, ill. p. 8.
Marilyn McCully in Susan Grace Galassi and Marilyn McCully. Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 2011, p. 184, no. 43, ill. p. 185.
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 47.
Michael FitzGerald inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 40, 43, 46, 303(3)n.14, no. 53, ill. p. 41 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 279–80, fig. 68, p. 291 (installation photo, Exh. New York 2011–12).
Emily Braun and Leonard A. Lauder inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 12, fig. 10 (installed in "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1989–90).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1923
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